At least two people have been killed and four injured in Tamil Nadu’s Kanchipuram district on Sunday when an unidentified object found in a temple pond suddenly blew up.
Reportedly, the incident happened behind the Gangai Amman Koil in Manampathi, near Tirupathur in Kanchipuram district. However, the police said the incident was not connected with the current terrorist alert in the state.
In the blast, a 22-year-old named Surya, and another person have succumbed to injuries while four others including Jayaram (28), Dileepan (25), Yuvaraj (25) and Thirumal (22) have been severely injured. They have been admitted to Chengalpattu Government Hospital.
“The pond, belonging to Gangai Amman Koil in the village, has not been used for many years. A few days ago some residents took the help of a private firm to desilt it. From there, the workers recovered an unidentified object. They were reportedly trying to open it when it blew up, killing a youth named K. Surya and injuring several others,” a police official said.
The police officer also said the blast did not have any connection to the current terror alert in the state. The state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been put on high alert following inputs on terrorists entering these two states to carry out a terror attack.
“We were initially shocked when we heard about the blast. But on coming here, it was clear this is a different kind of blast,” the police official added.
The injured have been admitted to a government hospital, he said. The samples have been collected from the blast spot by the Police to ascertain whether it was an IED blast or not.
Kancheepuram SP said that after the temple was recently cleaned, some objects were discarded and some people at the temple found a mysterious object and went to inspect it. The explosion took place after they tried to break or open it.
Some locals claimed that the box contained explosive used by the army. Meanwhile, the forensic teams are working to ascertain more details.