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HYDERABAD, India: The death toll from the explosion and fire at Sigachi Industries’ chemical factory in southern India has risen to at least 39, officials said on Tuesday, forcing the supplier of pharma products to shut operations for 90 days.

The government of Telangana state, where the facility is located, has formed a five-member committee to probe the incident, the cause of which is yet to be disclosed by the company. The explosion on Monday also injured 34, according to officials.

“We are still clearing the debris,” GV Narayana Rao, director of the Telangana fire disaster response service, told Reuters, adding that the building had completely collapsed.

“Once we are all done with the clearing, only then we will be able to assess if any other body is still remaining under the debris or if it is all clear,” Rao said.

Police officials said more than 140 people were working in the plant when the incident occurred. Twenty-five of the deceased were yet to be identified, district administrative official P. Pravinya said.

“I came out (of the plant) to use the restroom and heard a loud blast. It sounded like a bomb blast. I came out and saw fire. A part of the fire also spread toward me. I jumped the wall and escaped,” Chandan Gound, 32, who has been working at the factory for six months, told Reuters by phone.

“Many of them (those inside) managed to escape, but a large number were trapped and could not come out,” Gound added.

Sigachi, which makes microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), caters to clients in the pharma, food, cosmetic and specialty chemicals sectors in countries ranging from the US to Australia.

MCC’s compressibility, binding properties, and ability to boost drug release make it a vital ingredient in pharmaceutical manufacturing. It is also used to prevent the formation of lumps in food products, to maintain texture of cosmetic products, and as a fat substitute in low-calorie foods.

Sigachi’s Telangana plant contributes a little over a fourth of its total capacity of 21,700 million metric tons per annum.

Its shares dropped about 8 percent on Tuesday and were headed for their sharpest two-day drop on record.

Sigachi halted operations at the plant for 90 days from Monday citing damage to equipment and structures. The plant is fully insured and the company is initiating claims.

In a separate incident on Tuesday, five people were killed and four others injured in a massive fire at a crackers factory in the Sivakasi manufacturing cluster in the southern Tamil Nadu state, a fire department official said. The incident is the latest in a series of fire accidents in the area.

BEIJING: Heavy rains in central China killed two people and left six others missing, state media reported on Tuesday, as the country endures a summer surge in extreme weather.
“Short-term extremely heavy rainfall” struck the towns of Taiping and Erlangping in Henan province between 9:00 p.m. and midnight on Monday, state news agency Xinhua said, citing the county emergency response center.
A cumulative 225.3 millimeters (8.9 inches) of rain caused the local Shewei River to rise dramatically, “causing damage to some facilities and leaving people trapped,” according to Xinhua.
“So far, two of the trapped people have been rescued, two have died, and six remain missing,” it said.
It also said local authorities had launched a full-scale search-and-rescue mission in the stricken area.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists generally agree are driving climate change and making extreme weather more intense and frequent.
But it is also a global leader in renewable energy, adding capacity at a faster rate than any other country.
Extreme weather has swept large parts of China in recent weeks, with six people killed and more than 80,000 evacuated due to floods in southern Guizhou province last week, according to state media reports.
Authorities issued heat warnings in Beijing last week as temperatures in the capital rose to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated last month in Hunan province, also in central China, due to heavy rain.