New Delhi, Oct 25 (IANS) One person was killed and four others were injured in a deafening blast outside a firecracker godown here on Tuesday, the Delhi Police said.
The cracker explosion, captured on CCTV, took place at 10.40 a.m in a Pattewali Street in Naya Bazar in Old Delhi, not far from where firecrackers are sold in bulk for Diwali.
The police said the man killed in the explosion has been identified as Motalip Mirza, who worked as a labourer and was a resident of Murshidabad at West Bengal. The injured men -- Bhupendra Gupta (40), Mahesh (40), Hawa Singh (42) and Murari Lal (40) -- were admitted to a nearby hospital.
"Mirza had collected the bags from a rented house in Gali Zakaria, in Mohalla Fatak Hawas Khana, near Lohari Gate. Several bags of similar content have been found at that place. Mirza was working in Delhi for the last 15 to 20 years as a load carriier," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Madhur Verma told IANS.
He carried two big plastic bags full of crackers and kept them on the ground when the explosion occurred, the DCP said.
"It was a low intensity cracker blast. Later, from the Forensic Science Laboratory reports it appeared that the blast took place due to pressure of crackers kept in bags in large quantity. The samples of explosive were sent to the FSL soon after the incident," Joint Commissioner of Police Virender Singh Chahal told IANS.
Windowpanes of the surrounding buildings were damaged due to the impact of the explosion.
Footage from a CCTV camera showed people in the lane running away from the blast site in panic.
Security forces immediately threw a cordon in the area.
