Scrap dealer and 8-year-old boy killed in powerful Jorhat tenement blast; probe on cause underway

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JORHAT: Two people, a scrap dealer and an eight-year-old boy, were killed in a powerful explosion at a tenement in the Rajamaidam New Colony area here today. While the scrap dealer named Noor Ahmed was killed instantly in the blast, an 8-year-old boy identified as Iqbal Ahmed later succumbed to his injuries sustained in the blast at Jorhat Medical College & Hospital (JMCH).

An 11-year-old girl, Sehnaj Beum, who was injured in the high-intensity explosion, is undergoing treatment in JMCH.

The explosion took place in the rented room of Noor Ahmed (35), who was reportedly working as a scrap items collector and dealer.

Eyewitnesses said that they heard a deafening sound after which they rushed to the place of the incident—a row of rooms given out for rent—where they found the dismembered body of Ahmed.

A boy identified as Iqbal Ahmed (8), the son of a neighbour, later succumbed to his injuries from the blast at JMCH.

The police arrived at the scene and initiated an investigation, but they have not yet determined the cause of the explosion.

The sound of the blast was heard from quite a distance away, and several window panes of houses in the neighbourhood were shattered.

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