9 die as seized explosives accidentally go off in J&K

Nine people were killed and 32 were injured when approximately 360 kg of confiscated explosives accidentally detonated during forensics sampling at the Nowgam police station late on Friday, senior officials said on Saturday, even as multiple state and federal police teams hunted for more suspects and clues over the alleged white-collar terror module behind the cache.

- Mir Ehsan and Leena Dhankhar

The Nowgam police station in Srinagar after the blast.

(AN)

The explosives were part of a larger haul of close to 2,900kg materials seized from Faridabad and transported to Jammu and Kashmir, according to officials who said the smaller 360kg portion - which was highly explosive - was brought by road in a pickup truck with the rest ferried by trucks.

Among the dead were three members of a forensics team that was extracting samples when the explosive mix detonated, claiming also the lives of two revenue department officials, a state police inspector, two police photographers and a tailor working with the team.