Kerala Cracker Tragedy
At least 150 people were injured with ten of them in critical condition after a firework display in a temple in Keasaragod district of Kerala went up in a shower of flames last night. From the visuals in the spot, the crackers caused a huge fire and smoke, while people on the temple premises panicked.
The case happened at Anjootambalam Veererkavu during the onset of the festive season of the North Malabar area. The people, who claimed to have witnessed the incident narrated that a firecrackers display was on around 12 midnight and one of the prepared crackers dropped into the near by shed where more crackers were kept in readiness. Graphics depicted viewers in the audience looking amazed when the shed caught black smoke. Priyesh was at the temple to watch the festival with his cousins. It begin with a loud sound and after that it exploded into a ball of fire. Soon, there was panic and crowd gathered. There were many people leaning against the wall of the shed and due to the overcrowding, they were unable to wander around.
As they were burning, we began to hurry people to hospitals in other areas, he said. Sreerag, who is closely related to the temple came to Kuttiyattam for the festival from Bengaluru. At that moment he was controlling the guys when he heard the boom. It all started on Monday night the crowd level was somehow higher than normal. Silent fire extinguishers used.
"Crackers are not burst on a large scale here. It is a small event. However, there should have been more precaution regarding the distance between the shed and the place where crackers were burst," local ward member E Shajeer said. Kasaragod collector Inbasekar K said crackers should be stored at least 100 m from where crackers burst but here the distance was only a few feet away. The president and secretary of the temple committee have been taken into police custody.