Crackers claim 9 lives

New Delhi : At least nine people were killed in fireworks related incidents, including gutting of houses and shops, on Diwali across the country, while scores of others poured into hospitals with burns, eye injuries and other complaints.

However, the decline in such casualties in the national capital since the Supreme Court imposed restrictions on sale of firecrackers in 2017 continued.

It was a busy night for the firefighters with the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) alone responding to over 300 calls, including fires at garbage dumps due to bursting crackers, officials said on Monday.

According to Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur, 498 patients with burns, eye injuries and other complaints due to firecrackers arrived in its OPD department out of which 142 were admitted and 108 were emergency cases.

As many as 31 patients have been treated for burn injuries at the Kilpauk Government Medical College Hospital in Chennai. Among them was a young man whose thumb and index finger were partially amputated.

In Hyderabad, two hospitals said that they provided treatment to 77 people for eye injuries they sustained while bursting crackers during Diwali celebrations, sources said on Monday.

Diwali revelry took a tragic turn in Kolkata when a five-year-old boy, Adi Das of Haridevpur area, and 40-year-old Deep Kumar Koley of Kasba died when they were hit on the neck by fragments of clay flowerpot crackers in separate incidents.