Diwali turns tragic as homemade 'carbide guns' leave 14 children blind in MP

A surge in injuries linked to a homemade device known locally as the “carbide gun” has sent scores of children to hospitals across Madhya Pradesh in the days following Diwali, health officials and police said on Thursday.

- MPOST BUREAU

Over a 72-hour period, more than 122 children were admitted with severe eye and facial injuries, authorities reported, and 14 of them have suffered complete loss of sight. Vidisha district has been the worst affected, where the devices were openly sold in local markets despite a government ban issued on October 18. Prices for the crude guns ranged between Rs 150 and Rs 200, officials said.

The makeshift weapons assembled from items such as a gas lighter, a plastic pipe, and calcium carbide rapidly generate acetylene gas when the carbide comes into contact with water; a spark can then trigger an explosion. Some youths reportedly mixed gunpowder and match-head material with carbide inside plastic or tin pipes, creating a “mini cannon” that fires shrapnel and burning gas toward the user's face.