Seven arrests over Kerala fire as search for bodies continues

Police have arrested seven people who fled after a fire that killed about 116 people over the weekend, following a fireworks display in India's southern Kerala state.

Police said the seven were taken into custody late on Monday night, and faced possible charges of attempted murder and culpable homicide for the deaths in the Hindu Puttingal temple in Kollam district, 70km from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Some 380 others were injured in the fire on Sunday, triggered by a fireworks display for which the district authorities had refused permission.

About 200 of the injured were still being treated in various hospitals in the area, police said.

Temple officials, however, had disregarded the fiat disallowing the fireworks display, and gone ahead with what turned into a competitive affair between rival temples at the end of the seven-day festival honouring the Hindu goddess, Bhadrakali. The celebrations traditionally involve bursting crackers to appease the female deity.

Tens of thousands of devotes had gathered at the temple in anticipation of the fireworks display that began after midnight.

Within minutes of it beginning, a cracker landed on a pile of nearby firecrackers waiting to be fired, and the huge explosion that followed blew the roof off a nearby building, burying scores of people under rubble and steel girders.

Many victims were burnt beyond recognition and rescue teams were on Tuesday still sifting through the debris, looking for bodies.

Police said many devotees were still missing, feared dead, and dozens of bodies could not be identified.

Police also raided illegal firecracker factories in the area that operate without licences in an industry that in recent years has come under strict government watch.

Meanwhile, the Kerala high court is considering imposing an immediate ban on popular fireworks displays at all temples in the province, as safety measures are loosely implemented and the chances of an accident remain high.

But the board, which governs about 1,000 local temples, said it would not accept such a ban, as responsibility for the devotees’ safety was that of the state authorities.

Kerala's chief minister, Oommen Chandy, has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident, but many in the state and across the country were cynical over its outcome.

This was also not the first such incident in Kerala: the famous Sabrimala temple nearby had banned fireworks in 1952, after 687 people had died in a similar firecracker explosion.

Fires and stampedes are not uncommon at temples across India during religious festivals, because of the huge numbers involved, poor security measures, lax safety standards and lackadaisical attitude of the respective state machinery.

Inquiries into such accidents, headed by retired judges, often result in just a handful of low-ranking officials being punished.