Five killed, eight injured in Diwali-related incidents in Odisha

At least five people have been killed and eight others injured in Diwali-related incidents across Odisha, police said on Monday.

A man was hacked to death in Bhubaneswar allegedly for bursting fireworks, while another was charred to death in Keonjhar district in a blaze triggered by firecrackers on Sunday night, a police official said.

Another person was electrocuted to death while he was decorating his residence for the festival, he said.

“Amaresh Nayak and his friends were bursting firecrackers at Sundarpada area in Bhubaneswar when a group of youngsters prevented them from doing so. The altercation snowballed into a clash and Nayak was repeatedly hit with sharp wepaons and injured critically. Doctors at a hospital here declared him brought dead,” he said.

A government employee was charred to death after firecrackers fell on his house at Sadha Chhak in Keonjhar district, the officer said. The man was sleeping in his house during the incident, he said.

Another man came in contact with a live wire while fixing decorative lights at his residence in Bhadrak district and died on way to the hospital, the officer said.

In another incident, two persons were killed in an explosion that took place when they were making firecrackers on the occasion of Diwali at Shyam Sundarpur in Ganjam district, the inspector in-charge of Khallikote police station Satya Ranjan Pradhan said.

They were rushed to MKCG Medical College and Hospital where one of them died during treatment and another while being transferred to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, he said.

Four children were injured while burning firecrackers in Bhadrak district, while one person sustained burn injuries due to a blaze caused by a lamp in his shop in Ganjam district.

In another incident a youth was injured while bursting fireworks in Sundargarh district, the police official said.

In another incident, a standard five student was injured when he lit some duds he had collected from the street on Monday morning at Kairasi in Ganjam district, police said.

A shop owner was injured while trying to douse a fire at San Sorada village of the district on Sunday.