16 killed, 20 injured in S India steel plant explosion

An explosion in a state-owned steel plant in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has killed at least 16 people, police said Thursday. At least 20 other workers suffered serious burns in the blast and a massive fire that broke out late Wednesday in the plant in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam, said Police Commissioner Purnachandra Rao, Times of India reported. The explosion occurred when the officials were conducting a trial run of the oxygen plant. Most of those killed on Wednesday night were contract workers. The death toll was expected to rise as the condition of some of the injured was critical, Rao said.