At least 20 people have been killed and 25 injured
after a gas cylinder exploded in a restaurant in
central India, a police official has said.

The explosion occurred at around 8.30am at the
restaurant in Jhabua district, in Madhya Pradesh
state, as dozens of office workers and schoolchildren
were having breakfast on Saturday, senior district
police official Seema Alava said.

“As of now, 20 people are confirmed dead. But this
number could rise,” Alava told the AFP news agency
from the site.

“Rescue efforts are on to find anyone who could be
trapped inside [the debris].

“The restaurant was in a tightly packed locality and a
lot of people were here having breakfast, that is why
the casualties are so high,” she said, adding that
about 25 injured people were rushed to a nearby
hospital.

Television footage showed scores of people and
rescue workers using their bare hands to shift
mangled heaps of steel and concrete of the crumbled
buildings while police cordoned off the area.

Alava said the intensity of the blast knocked down a
neighbouring building and damaged several others.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately
clear.