Four persons were killed in an explosion in Nakhatrana taluka of Kutch on Saturday. The deceased included two brothers and their two children. Police said that the explosion took place in their semi-truck at midday at their scrapyard, adjoining their home.

Mamad Ilyas Kumbhar (30) and his son Hasnain Mamad (3), and Noormamad Ilyas Kumbhar (26) and his daughter Noor Fatima Noormamad (3) were killed in the explosion that ripped through the vehicle from which they were unloading scrap material they had collected during the day.

Inspector A M Patel of Nakhatrana police station said, “The two brothers were small-scale scrap traders. They had collected scrap in the first half of the day and returned to their yard near Kotda Jadodar village, which was also where they lived. An explosion took place, killing all four of them.”

While the police primarily say that the blast could have originated in the fuel tank of the vehicle, Inspector Patel said that officials from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) had collected samples from the site and that a report from them was awaited.

Meanwhile, the police filed an Accidental Death (AD) report at Nakhatrana police station and began their investigation, trying to find the route of the vehicle and what scrap they had picked up from which places.