Kids go blind after ‘carbide’ Diwali cracker gun use in MP

More than 100 persons, most of them children aged between 8 and 14, were hospitalised in Bhopal and neighbouring Vidisha district in Madhya Pradesh due to injuries sustained after using calcium carbide guns on Diwali, officials said on ThursdayWhile 60 are admitted in government hospitals in the state capital, 50 are recuperating in facilities in Vidisha, including five with eye injuries, they added.

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“These crude guns, made using a gas lighter, a plastic pipe, and calcium carbide, are in vogue this Diwali. The calcium carbide in the gun producesacetylene gas when it meets water and explodes upon contact with a spark,” an official explained.

Small plastic fragments ejected from the pipe, like shrapnel, cause serious injuries and damage to various parts, especially the eyes, face, and skin, he said.