A midnight blast claimed a life and three others were injured, one of them seriously at a village in Katwa, East Burdwan, late on Friday night.

Police have arrested one person in connection with the blast.

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The blast happened at an abandoned building, reportedly during the manufacturing of crude bombs there.

As per the statement given by the local residents to the police, the entire area shook following two successive blasts late on Friday night.

The panicked women like Jharu Sheikh, Nurunnrhar Sheikh said: “As our houses trembled with the loud noise, we came out immediately with our panicked children crying. Our courtyards were covered under dense smoke.” The neighbours assembled near the house of Montu Sheikh that was razed to the ground. The house was abandoned for years after Montu’s death.

As the local people rushed to the spot they saw the charred body of a person there. Another person, who was severely injured in the blast but still alive, was also there.

The deceased person was later identified as Barkat Karigar, a miscreant accused of several robberies in Birbhum and East Burdwan. He, the police said, was a resident of Nanoor of neighbouring Birbhum. Police suspect Barkat and his aides were preparing a bomb inside the abandoned house, which exploded.

The impact of the two blasts was so massive that the wall of a room in the abandoned house collapsed and its roof was blown off completely.

A huge contingent from the local police station reached the spot and the injured Tufan Chowdhury was rushed to a local hospital and he is under treatment there.

The body of the deceased person was sent for post-mortem purposes and the police are trying to ascertain his identity.