Gelatin sticks go off accidentally

Gelatin sticks stored in a godown accidentally exploded in Karoshi village in Chikkodi taluk on Saturday. No one was injured.

Around gelatin 15 sticks weighing around 12 kilograms caught fire accidentally and exploded. The high decibel blast was heard beyond the village, up to a distance of around five kilometres.

The godown stored gelatin sticks that are usually used for digging wells or in stone quarries.

Village residents said that they heard a loud noise from the fields beyond the godown. Some thought some one was blasting stones in a quarry.

Police said that the godown is legal. It appears that the explosion happened when workers were trying to dispose of expired gelatin sticks, a police officer investigating the case said.

Vinay Khinavar, a dealer in explosives, owns the godown. “The trader has a licence to store explosives and distribute them in that area. Storage bunkers have been built as per specifications. We are looking into the cause of the explosion,” Superintendent of Police Sudheer Kumar Reddy said.