A massive blast inside a house has rocked the city of Bhagalpur in the Indian state of Bihar, causing four homes to collapse and leaving at least nine people dead and several others injured or buried under the rubble, police said on Friday.
According to the Indian news agency ANI, the incident occurred on Thursday night at around 11:30 p.m. (IST) in a house located in the Kajwali Chak area.
Police suspect country-made crude bombs may have caused the blast. It was so massive that it was even heard around 15 kilometres from the site of the explosion.
According to neighbours, the residents of the house were in the business of making firecrackers.
An initial investigation by a forensic team and police officers cite gunpowder, illegal firecrackers, and country-made bombs stored in the building to be the primary reasons for the explosion.
"The explosion may have taken place during the illegal manufacturing of country-made crude bombs. There is also a possibility that the alleged persons could be making crackers", Bhagalpur's Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Sujit Kumar said.
"As the nature of the blast was so intense, we believe that the quantity of the explosives was very high", Kumar added.
A rescue operation is now being carried out and local police believe several people could still be trapped under the debris.