NEW DELHI: At least three people were killed and 10 others injured in firecrackers explosion during a religious procession in India’s Punjab on Saturday.
According to reports, the explosion took place when sparks from a cracker landed on a tractor-trolley carrying huge quantity of firecrackers in Tarn Taran, area of Punjab.
Police said that people were exploding cracker during the religious process when a tractor-trolley laden with firecrackers passed through the area.
One of the cracker, lit by the people, landed on the vehicle and a huge bang turned the celebrations into the mourning, said the official.
Police and rescue officials, after being informed, rushed to the scene and shifted the injured and the bodies to nearby hospitals.
Read More: India’s firecracker hub hit by anti-pollution drive
Last year on October 25, with thousands of workers painstakingly handmaking vast volumes of firecrackers, Sivakasi in southern India is usually at full tilt before Diwali. But due to efforts to curb air pollution, the pyrotechnics epicentre was fizzling out.
In addition to gifts, elaborate feasts and family get-togethers, the Hindu mega-festival of lights, which fell that weekend, had in recent years also meant setting off firecrackers — millions of them.
Their smoke combines with other emissions to turn the air of India’s cities — among the world’s most polluted — into a deadly, sickly yellow cocktail that one study had said kills a million Indians prematurely every year.
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