Two children among five dead in Firozabad factory explosion, 11 hospitalised
Firozabad (UP) (PTI): Five persons, including two children and a woman, were killed due to an explosion at a firecracker godown-cum-factory in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad district that caused damage to nearby houses, a police official said on Tuesday.
Eleven persons sustained injuries in the blast, which happened in the factory located in the Naushera area under Shikohabad police station limits on Monday night, they said.
Local residents also said that around one dozen houses were damaged due to the blast, and roofs of some of the houses have also been damaged.
"Five persons including two children were killed in the explosion, which had taken place in a firecracker godown-cum-factory. Eleven persons were injured in the incident," Circle Officer Shikohabad Praveen Tiwari told PTI.
According to local residents, around 10.30 pm, there was a sudden blast in the firecracker godown due to which the walls of the building collapsed and about seven people got buried under the debris.
Meera Devi (45), Aman Kushwaha (17), Gautam Kushwaha (16) and Kumari Ichha (4) and Abhinaye (2) died in the incident. The two kids are siblings, the officer said, adding that they were identified based on information obtained from the district hospital.
The bodies of the deceased were handed over to their kin after post-mortem, officials said.
Family members of the deceased, initially said that they will not carry out the last rites until the government gives them money to rebuild the houses.
However, the families agreed to holding the funerals after speaking to District Magistrate Ramesh Ranjan and SSP Saurabh Dixit, who visited the the spot, Tiwari said.
The process of convincing the family members is underway, he said.
Shikohabad's MLA Mukesh Verma, who was also present on the spot, said that the DM spoke to the Chief Minister's Office regarding compensation. He got an assurance that Rs 4 lakhs will be given to the kin of each deceased, after which the family agreed to perform the last rites, Verma said.
The MLA also said that he has requested the DM to arrange a 100-yard plot for those whose homes have been destroyed in the blast.
The state government said that UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the accident.
The chief minister has directed the district administration officials to provide proper treatment to the injured, and issued instructions to district administration officials to expedite relief work, it said.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
