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| Debris is strewn on the ground following an explosion set off by a blaze at a fireworks factory in Sivakasi, some 700km from state capital Chennai. |
The fire started in a small room that was packed with workers and swiftly spread to dozens of other rooms, he said. Many were being used to store explosive chemicals and other raw material needed to manufacture firecrackers.
"Some men jumped out of the windows but there were many who tried saving others in the factory and got trapped in the thick smoke. Thirty-four people have lost their lives and 60 are injured," Hoda said.
Firefighter Shanmugaraju described a "huge explosion" as the factory in Sivakasi went up in flames. The town is the centre of the Indian fireworks industry, some 700km from state capital Chennai.
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The firefighter told AFP that local people had walked towards the Om Sivasakthi plant after the fire broke out and were then caught up in the carnage.
Officials at a local hospital confirmed to AFP that they had taken in 34 bodies as well as many badly burned survivors.
"We are treating 52 injured patients. Many are in critical condition," an administrator in the Sivakasi government hospital, Venkatalakshmi, who goes by one name, told AFP.
"Every doctor is attending to six or seven injured people and many patients are very critical."
Sivakasi, which is home to some 700 fireworks factories, is running at peak production ahead of the forthcoming festival season, which includes Diwali, the festival of lights, when Indians celebrate by letting off firecrackers.
Back-to-back brick-built factories are packed into the centre of the fireworks district, where more than 40,000 workers assemble products by hand.
"Diwali is fast approaching and there is a lot of activity going on out here," Hoda said by telephone from the blast site.
"The factory had a basic fire-fighting system which did not work."
Television pictures showed smoke billowing from the factory and the surrounding warehouses. Stocks of firecrackers exploded in the flames and villagers were seen carrying away the injured, using clothes in the absence of stretchers.
At least six fire trucks at the scene took more than three hours to bring the blaze under control after it broke out around 12:30am (1700 AEST), with exploding fireworks and toxic fumes posing a danger to the emergency workers.
About 150-200 workers were on the production line when the blaze began, but most of them managed to escape unharmed, officials at the scene said.
The latest tragedy in Sivakasi comes after at least 20 people were killed in another blaze at a fireworks factory in the town in July 2005.
Accident-prone local factories, targeted by child rights groups in the past for employing under-age workers, are also India's leading manufacturers of safety matches.
