An explosion of fireworks injures more than 150 people at a temple in India

NEW DELHI (AP) — A huge explosion of fireworks injured more than 150 people at a religious festival in a temple in southern India, a report said Tuesday.

The explosion occurred Monday night when a fireworks storage facility near Veerarkavu temple caught fire, the Press Trust of India reported, citing the police. It happened in Kasargod, which is nearly 580 kilometers (360 miles) northwest of Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala state capital,

The injured were treated at various hospitals in Kasargod, Kannur, and Mangaluru districts. Eight of them had serious injuries.

There is a huge demand in India for firecrackers, which are used in religious festivals and weddings. Fatal accidents occur nearly every year as people work in makeshift factories without proper safety measures.

An explosion at a fireworks factory in southern India July last year killed eight people. In 2018, a massive fire at a firecracker factory in New Delhi killed 17 workers. A year earlier, a blast killed 23 people while they were making firecrackers in a village in Madhya Pradesh state in central India.