Factory Fire in India Kills Eight Workers

A fire in a chemical factory in northern India killed at least eight workers and injured more than a dozen more, police said Saturday.

According to senior police official Pravin Kumar, the fire started after a boiler exploded in the plant in the Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh.

He said the injured had been taken to the hospital and that three of them were in critical condition. According to Ajay Mishra, a rescue worker, the blast was so powerful that it blew the factory's roof off. An investigation has been launched by the authorities.

In 2019, a fire in a New Delhi factory making handbags and other things was started by an electrical short circuit, killing 43 persons. A fire in a six-story building's illegal rooftop kitchen killed 17 people in a second significant fire that year, also in New Delhi.

On Saturday, Egypt rejected the entry of a ship carrying 55,000 tons of Indian wheat because it did not meet quarantine requirements, according to Egyptian plant quarantine chief Ahmed al-Attar.

“We rejected the ship before it entered Egypt,” al-Attar revealed, adding that Turkish quarantine authorities had already blocked the arrival of the vessel.

Separately, Egyp was expecting the arrival of its first Indian wheat shipment later on Saturday, purchased by the Egyptian private sector.

Supply Minister Aly Moselhy said in May that a deal with India to directly purchase 500,000 tons of wheat outside the usual tender system had been agreed but not yet signed.