KOLLAM (India): A fire and explosions during a fireworks display to mark the start of the local Hindu new year killed over 100 people and injured more than 380 others at a temple in southern India on Sunday.

Thousands had packed overnight into the temple complex in Kerala state where the firework is thought to have landed on a stockpile of others, triggering a huge blast that tore through concrete buildings.

“It came like a storm, throwing everyone to the ground. There were bodies all over the place and the injured were writhing in pain,” said Anish Kumar, who had gone with his friends to see the display at the Puttingal Devi temple in Kollam district.

“I was horrified to see hundreds of men and women on the ground lifeless,” said Kumar, who lost one of his friends in the disaster.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the accident as “heart-rending and shocking beyond words” and toured the complex and met the injured in a hospital.

“The incident is so grave that it is very difficult to describe in words. People who were 200 metres away were also hurt,” Mr Modi said.

“And right now the doctor was telling me that some of the blasts were such that some people’s bodies were blown apart.”

A team of specialist doctors were deployed from New Delhi amid reports of horrific burn injuries. The navy and air force also sent helicopters to evacuate the most critically injured, officials said.

“The death toll is 106 with 75 of those identified and 31 unknown,” a spokesman for Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said.

Firefighters and police had battled at the temple in the coastal town of Paravur to douse the fire and rescue those trapped at the complex. But residents said some victims were charred beyond recognition.

Video footage showed a series of explosions and fireworks erupting at about 3am (2130 GMT Saturday) along with huge plumes of smoke.

Local residents carried the bloodied and injured victims in their arms from the scene. They told of the force of the explosion sending concrete slabs and other building parts slamming into the crowd.

Mr Chandy and other officials said the temple had gone ahead with the fireworks display despite being refused permission.

“I had denied permission for this fireworks because they had asked permission for conducting it on a competition basis,” Kollam district collector A. Shainomal told the NDTV network.

The Kerala government ordered a judicial inquiry into the cause of the disaster and Mr Chandy’s spokesman said that police had registered a criminal case against temple authorities.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2016