Krishnagiri: 2 injured in gelatin stick blast

KRISHNAGIRI: An explosive substance, unexploded gelatin sticks left carelessly on the road, accidentally triggered by a cell phone battery, exploded and injured two school students in a village in Krishnagiri district on Saturday. M.Nagesh and his friend R.Syed Ahmed, both 14-years-old and native of Krishnamma Kothur and Mallinayakanapalli villages near Hosur in the district, suffered serious injuries from the blast, police said.

The two boys, both class nine students of a government school in Devasaganapalli, have been admitted to the Hosur government hospital, sources said. The explosive substance went off when the students nibbled at it while returning home from school, they said. “On the way home, we found an electric wire and pulled out. Heard a deafening blast noise soon after Syed connected the wire to the cell phone battery,” Nagesh told the DC later.

The incident came to be known after their relatives went in search for them. The boys were later shifted to a private hospital here. “We went in search of them after the boys failed to return home in time. They were found lying in pool of blood in a place where a stone quarry is operated at Devasaganapalli,” 53-year-old S.Y.Rahman father of the injured Syed Ahmed, told reporters.

He said, “the blast was triggered by an unexploded gelatin stick abandoned by the quarry workers who fixed explosives in the place to blast rock boulders.” According to Rahman, the incident could have been avoided if the quarry workers had removed the unexploded gelatin sticks. He demanded that police initiate action against the quarry owners to avoid the repeat of such incidents in future.