At least 23 workers were killed and six others injured on Sunday when a catastrophic explosion tore through a fireworks manufacturing unit near Virudhunagar (a district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu known as a hub of the country's fireworks industry). Fire and rescue teams battled the blaze for an extended period as residual chemicals and unfinished pyrotechnic goods continued to detonate at the site. The force of the blasts was so severe that victims' bodies were scattered across the area, underlining the deadly risks faced by workers in India's largely unregulated small-scale fireworks sector.