Two killed, four injured in explosion near temple in TN

A man died and one of the four injured men succumbed to his injuries on Monday taking the toll to two in the explosion at a temple premises in a village near suburban Tiruporur in Kancheepuram district.

While a 22-year old man died following an explosion on Sunday, another man, who was among the injured, died without responding to treatment at a government hospital near here, police said.

Other injured men were being treated for their injuries, they said.

A team of forensic experts and bomb squad personnel inspected the premises and collected samples following the explosion at a spot abutting a pond, right in the backyard of Sri Gangai Amman temple at Manamathi village.

The loud explosion rattled the local people and it left pockmarks in portions of the temple walls and some structures.

Last night, police cordoned off the temple premises and barred people from accessing the site of the explosion.

Several aspects related to the explosion, like its cause, the nature of explosive material, and how it landed in the premises of the temple and what triggered it were sketchy and were being probed by police.

Some local people said the explosion occurred when one of the dead men tried to break open a container like material found in the recently desilted temple pond, and others had divergent versions as well.

Another version, according to locals, was that a chest fell from a tree in the pond and other was that a box-like material was flung from the temple tower by a youth during a clean-up exercise and it exploded.

Police said the probe was on.