At least eight workers were killed in a blast that ripped through an ordnance factory in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district near Nagpur on Friday morning.

Sources said the roof collapsed, trapping the labourers. Thirteen people have been rescued, of whom five are receiving treatment, the Bhandara Ordnance Factory said in a statement.

Such was the intensity of the explosion that it was heard from 5km away. Thick smoke was seen rising from the factory in a video captured from a distance. The National Disaster Response Force conducted the rescue.

“According to preliminary information, eight persons were killed and seven injured in the blast,” Union minister Nitin Gadkari had told reporters in Nagpur earlier in the day.

District collector Sanjay Kolte said the blast took place around 10.30am.

Defence sources said the initial reports suggested the explosion had occurred in the RDX manufacturing unit of the factory. Some employees are reported to have suffered severe burns.

The blast was so powerful that residents of three nearby villages felt its impact, said the relatives of a 20-year-old apprentice who was among the victims, PTI reported.

Ankit Barai, whose body has been retrieved, had joined the factory last year, his uncle Bhaiyarao Barai said.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh offered condolences to the families of the deceased.

In 2020 the army had said in an internal report to the defence ministry that ammunition worth ₹960 crore bought from the Ordnance Factory Board over the past six years had been found to be of poor quality.

This resulted in over 400 accidents in which 27 troopers were killed between 2014 and 2019, the report said.

Some 159 soldiers were grievously injured and some suffered permanent disabilities and loss of limbs.