Dozens killed India gas blast

Police said at least 60 people were killed and scores more wounded when a cooking gas cylinder exploded around breakfast time in the town of Petlawad on Saturday.

The blast caused the building's roof to collapse and prompted evacuations from adjoining buildings.

"The postmortems of 60 bodies have been carried out. The number of injured is around 100," Arun Kumar Sharma, chief medical officer of Jhabua district, told AFP.

Rescue workers pulled dozens of bodies from the debris while police struggled to keep onlookers away from the restaurant to let ambulances through. Television footage showed people sifting through mangled heaps of concrete and steel with their bare hands as they scrambled to get to the wounded.

Authorities said the power of the blast may have been compounded by the storage of dynamite sticks near the restaurant.

"It looks like someone had stored those explosives, the ones used in mining, in one of the buildings. But only further investigation will reveal the exact details," senior district police official Seema Alava said.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced a probe into the explosion, and said compensation would be provided to the families of the dead. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences via Twitter.

"Extremely pained at the loss of lives due to the cylinder blast," he said.

Domestic gas cylinder explosions are common in India, although mass casualties are highly unusual. Local officials said the high death toll in Saturday's blast came down to the fact that the restaurant was crowded and was located close to a busy bus station.

Petlawad is about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of the Indian capital, New Delhi.

nm/sms (Reuters, AFP, dpa)