Nine killed, 30 injured in blast in Punjab firecracker factory

At least 9 people were killed and many injured in a blast at an unauthorized firecracker factory in a residential in Batala town of Punjab's Gurdaspur district on Wednesday, an official said.

Rescue workers were on the job to retrieve the bodies from the badly-damaged building, an official told IANS over phone.

The cause of the blast is yet to be ascertained, he added.