Blast in granite quarry kills 12 in southern India

HYDERABAD, India – A powerful explosion at a granite quarry in southern India on Friday killed at least 12 workers and injured another four, a government official said.

N. Chandrababu Naidu, the top elected official of Andhra Pradesh state, says the victims were breaking stones and loading them in trucks at the time of the blast.

Police officer J. Gopinath says the gelatine sticks used to blast granite exploded and the area was engulfed in fire, according to the Indian Express newspaper.

The four injured were hospitalized. Rescuers were searching for any other worker trapped in the rubble, the Press Trust of India news agency says.

The blast burned five trucks and caused cracks in several homes in neighbouring areas.

People living in nearby villages ran out in panic as the blast shook Hattibalegal, a village in Kurnool district, which is 210 kilometres (130 miles) south of Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh state capital.