Indian Oil says fire at Haldia refinery unit kills 3, injures 44

A fire at Indian Oil Corp`s Haldia refinery killed three people and injured 44, the company said on Tuesday.

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The incident occurred at around 2:50 p.m. local time (0920 GMT) during maintenance-related work at a gasoline making unit of the 160,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, the company said.

IOC, the country`s top refiner, has shut the coastal refinery in eastern India, in the first week of this month for about 50 days for maintenance, a company spokesman said.

"The primary cause seems to be a flash fire leading to burn injuries to 44 persons and 3 persons have unfortunately succumbed to their injuries," it said in a statement.

The fire was immediately extinguished and the situation is under control, the company said, adding that authorities were investigating the cause of the incident.