India, April 2 -- Girish Kotak, 58, a businessman, was having tea when a deafening explosion shattered the morning calm on Tuesday. He said it felt like a plane had crashed or something had fallen from the sky. "The walls shook, it seemed. Then we saw dust and smoke from across the street near the industrial area," said Kotak, who lives around 200 metres from an illegal firecracker factory housed in a warehouse in Gujarat's Deesa, where a fire claimed at least 21 lives on Tuesday.

The blaze triggered explosions and the collapse of sections of the warehouse, trapping workers under the rubble. Residents and shopkeepers around the scene fled, fearing further detonations as ambulances and the fire brigade rushed to the area. Police set up ba...