india

Updated: Oct 29, 2019 02:57 IST

Three people, including the shop owner, were charred to death in a blaze at a firecracker shop in Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Monday.

The accident took place in grocer Kashi Sen’s shop in Makdi village late on Sunday night.

Police said that Sen ran a grocery shop at Bazaar Chowk in the village and also sold firecrackers from there during Diwali festival as he had a license.

Sen sold firecrackers to the villagers on Sunday on Diwali and his two friends – Balram Netam and Shivlal Shrimali – pitched in to help him in managing the crowd at the shop.

The three remained inside the shop after pulling the shutters and the firecrackers stored there caught fire at around 11.30pm, police said.

An official said police rushed to the spot and that the flames were doused with the help of locals.

The flames, however, gutted the entire shop and the three men died on the spot.

A team of experts from a forensic science laboratory visited the site on Monday morning to ascertain the exact cause of the fire.