One person died on the spot after a Maruti 800 vehicle with LPG cylinders exploded in Ukkadam in Coimbatore district. The incident took place near the Kottai Eswaran temple in Ukkadam in the wee hours of Sunday, October 23. Ukkadam is a sensitive area in Coimbatore and top police officials including Director General of Police (DGP) Sylendra Babu, Additional DGP (Law and Order) Thamarai Kannan and forensic officials have rushed to the location where the incident occured on Sunday. 

The incident took place at around 4 am near the temple, and emergency teams rushed to the spot to douse the flames. The mangled remains of the car are being examined by forensic teams to ascertain the reason behind the explosion.

ADGP (Law and Order) P Thamarai Kannan, who visited the spot4 told journalists that the police are looking into all angles. “Around 4 to 4.30 am, there has been a cylinder blast in a Maruti 800 car. The person who was driving the vehicle died on the spot and we are in the process of establishing his identity. The incident took place near Kottai Eswaran temple so we are carrying out investigations to find out what exactly happened. Senior officers from the forensic department are at the spot and collecting evidence. We are collecting CCTV footage and will reveal the details of the investigations later in the day,” he said. 

According to initial investigations, the police have identified the owner of the vehicle and a police team has rushed to Pollachi. Meanwhile, the police are also in the process of establishing the identity of the deceased. The body of the deceased is kept at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for post mortem.

Ukkadam, which is located in central Coimbatore, has a heavy Muslim population and is a communally sensitive area. After the incident, the police have cordoned off the entire area, and a large number of police personnel have been deployed in and around Ukkadam and Coimbatore district to avoid any untoward incidents.