In a heartrending incident, at least three people were charred to death and many others were injured, four of them seriously, as a generator of a restaurant exploded after coming in contact with firecracker flames in Khandagiri here.
The intensity of the explosion was so high that the bodies of the deceased were torn into pieces and lay scattered. Glasses of windows of eatery were broken into pieces.
The mishap occurred at the Seven Miles Restaurant at around 5.30 pm when some staff of the restaurant burst crackers in front yard of the eatery where there was a generator. The identity of the three deceased is yet to be established. The bodies were taken to the Capital Hospital for postmortem.
The injured were identified as Ashok Choudhary, Tapan Beura, Bibekananda Mohapatra and Prananath Sahu. Two of the injured, Prananath and Bibekananda, were shifted to the SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack. The other two are under treatment in the Capital Hospital here. Fire personnel and police officers, including Commissioner of Police Dr RP Shamra and Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi, rushed to the spot.
As per eyewitnesses, the incident occurred after a cracker flame fell on the generator. The diesel spilled out of the generator following the explosion and injured the men on the road. Such was the fury of the blast that it injured a man driving his car on the nearby road. All the building and people in 500 meter radius could feel the jolt.