Attempt to defuse firecrackers goes wrong, massive blast rocks

An enormous mushroom cloud went up several metres high as firecrackers, seized by police, exploded while being defused on the banks of Ganga in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district on Thursday, damaging several houses even on the other bank of the river -- Chinsurah in Hooghly district.

Officials said the explosion happened in the district's Naihati town around 3 pm when sleuths of the bomb disposal squad were trying to defuse a large quantity of firecrackers that were seized recently from illegal manufacturing units in the area.

The intensity of the blast was so massive that not only houses located near Ramghat, where the incident happened, were damaged, a number private and government buildings at Chinsurah in Hooghly district were shaken, police said.

Chandannagar Police Commissioner Humayun Kabir rushed out of his office, hearing the blast, and so did judges and lawyers at the local court complex.

Many government officials who come to Chinsurah from other ...