16 killed in TN jeep explosion

A crater, pieces of human flesh, debris, curious onlookers and a dazed village.

A crater, pieces of human flesh, debris, curious onlookers and a dazed village. Several hours after a jeep carrying 300 kg of slurry a watery explosive mix of calcium and ammonium nitrate blew up, Senthur, a sleepy hamlet 120 km from Chennai, was still coming to terms with the freak tragedy that left 16 dead.

Police said a short circuit caused the explosives, stacked in the jeep going past the village, to blow up. The impact cracked roofs of pucca buildings, shattered glass panes, stripped off concrete from ceilings and caused loose asbestos roofs to fall inside homes even half a kilometer away. One man died when the roof of his house collapsed on him.

Except for a few pieces of aluminum, strips of tyre and the engine, flung some six metres away, there was little left of the jeep. The blast caused a crater 1.7 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep.

At about 11.30 am, the jeep carrying the explosives stopped right near the village, with smoke billowing from behind. The main road was bustling, the local tea shop crowded as the Tindivanam-Villupuram town bus dropped off several villagers.

8220;As smoke was coming out from the back of the car, the driver and another man got off and went running behind to throw sand on it. Several villagers also ran towards the car. Suddenly, the driver and his helper started running away from the vehicle and there was this massive explosion. I was half-a-kilometer away and remember being thrown in the air by the impact. That8217;s all I remember,8221; said Palani Ekambaram, a farmer, who had been watching the car from a nearby tea shop. He later found himself at the JIPMER Hospital in Pondicherry with severe head injuries.

DGP D Mukherjee told The Indian Express that the slurry was being carried to Thirukovilur for blasting a stone quarry to widen the National Highway to Tiruchy. The owner of the explosives godown at Paathirapuliyur, about 10 km from Senthur, from where the consignment had left, was absconding. There was also much confusion about whether the driver of the jeep, Babu had escaped the blast. The helper, Shanmugham, was killed. Eleven grievously wounded villagers, including two women, were admitted to JIPMER. Two died later in the afternoon, taking the death toll to 16.

Villager A Natarajan was in a state of shock. His brother, A Krishnan, had been one of those curious villagers who had run towards the car. The blast ripped off his left jaw and a portion of his left shoulder and right leg. The three operation theatres at JIPMER were kept busy the whole day with doctors trying to patch up three villagers8217; stomachs that had been ripped open.

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8220;My 10-year-old daughter had gone to the main road to fetch water for us to have our lunch. At about 11.30 am, I heard a loud blast. She came running towards me, things hanging from her stomach, and clutched me. She died in my arms,8221; wailed Pandiammal, a nomad.

While the police denied there was any 8220;sinister plot8221; behind the incident, AIADMK supremo, J Jayalalithaa, who visited the village, described it as 8220;an act of terror8221;.