SHOCKING: Blast kills 10

In a tragic incident nine people including a five-year-old girl and a newborn child - died while nearly two dozen people were seriously injured on Tuesday afternoon when a blast occurred in an electric transformer installed in Khatolai village near Shahpura town. A family was holding a function for the upcoming marriages of two sisters of the family at the spot when the incident occurred and created havoc in the area. As the news of the incident spread, cops, administrative officials, politicos and locals rushed to the spot.

“One Bhairuram Lomar’s two daughters were to be married in a few days from now. On Tuesday, the Bhaat ceremony was being performed. For this ceremony, Bhairuram’s in-laws’ had come to perform their part of the ceremony. Since it is a ceremony primarily performed by women of the house, Bhairuram’s wife - Kamla - was preparing for it. The preparation was taking time and thus the family members went outside the main gate of the house and started waiting for Kamla,” officials said.

The family members were singing songs of the marriage and were near the transformer. “While the family was enjoying the festivity, suddenly a blast occurred in the transformer and hot oil poured out of the machine. Due to the blast, a wire carrying electric current fell on the crowd assembled at the spot and immediately current started flowing through the people. One after the other, people got electrocuted and got burnt due to the same resulting in five death on the spot,” officials said.

A huge hue and cry rent the air as the incident occurred and the assembled people rushed away from the spot on hearing the blast. “However, few men immediately rushed to the scene and even alerted the cops and ambulance were called. Three deceased were identified as Prem Devi (35), Prem Devi (25), Aanchi Devi (25), Roshan (5) and Dholi Devi. One after the other, a dozen ambulances in addition to private vehicles were called as the number of injured started increasing with each passing second. Twenty-two people were rushed to the hospital at Shahpura from where they were referred to Jaipur for treatment,” officials said.

BJP legislator Phool Chand Bhinda rushed to the spot along with various officials of local administration and took stock of the situation as villagers declined to remove the dead bodies from the spot. When local administrative officials tried to settle their dissent, the villagers formed a group and declined to hear them until the district collector reached the spot. district collector Siddharth Mahajan rushed to Khatolai and announced a compensation of ten lakh rupees to deceased’s family. Furthermore, he also assured that the injured would get a compensation based on the percentage as prescribed. After the assurance, the villagers finally agreed to accept the dead bodies. The bodies were then taken to the mortuary at NIMS and a post-mortem of the dead bodies will be conducted on Wednesday after which they will be handed to their family members for cremation.

Meanwhile, the news about the incident had already reached Jaipur where arrangements to receive them and start treatment immediately had already been made. However, four more deaths occurred while the injured were being treated at Jaipur. At Jaipur, doctors operated upon a pregnant woman with 80 percent burns and delivered a stillborn child.

Health Minister Kalicharan Saraf, energy minister Pushpendra Singh, deputy speaker of state assembly Rao Rajendra Singh and chief minister Vasundhara Raje reached the hospital and met with the injured while instructing the doctors and hospital staff regarding proper treatment.

Treat them with utmost priority: CM

CM Vasundhara Raje visited SMS hospital and met the injured in Shahpura mishap. CM issued directions to the SMS Hospital officials that the treatment must be given utmost priority. She also offered condolences to the bereaved families. Raje took a detailed meeting of the incident in which health minister Kalicharan Saraf among others were present.