Two Asian men were killed and two policemen were injured when 300kg of firecrackers loaded in two vehicles exploded in the Al Gurf area of Ajman yesterday morning.
The firecrackers were confiscated following a court order and were meant to be destroyed but exploded due to an “error'', official news agency WAM reported, quoting a Civil Defence source.
Investigations are underway to determine the exact causes of the incident, it added.
At the explosion site, Asian labourers told XPRESS how the earth shook after a big bang at a sprawling waste dump.
“Two people of Indian origin were killed and two others injured'', a police officer outside the Khalifa Hospital in Ajman told XPRESS.
“I heard a very loud explosion around 11am and the whole ground shook. Looking in the direction of the sound, I could see white smoke billowing upwards about half a kilometre away,'' Shafiq, a steel cutter from Pakistan working at a villa construction site said.
Manjit Singh, a labourer from Jalandhar in northern India, said he heard a big explosion and soon after he saw a convoy of police vehicles and ambulances heading for the spot.
Yella, a construction worker from the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh said he got a shock when he heard a huge blast.
Police cars and civil defence ambulances were parked around a white car with both front doors blown wide open. The site, full of sand dunes, was cordoned off with ribbon tape.
