Five people, including three road workers, a driver and a government schoolteacher, were killed when gelatin sticks stored in a metal container exploded on a ghat road near Gummanthi village in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitharama Raju district on Saturday, police said.
The blast occurred in Ananthagiri mandal while road-widening work was under way on the route. According to a preliminary investigation, workers were filling diesel into the vehicle carrying the explosives when a fire broke out, triggering the explosion. Police and rescue teams reached the site to establish the exact cause.
The incident also killed Sunitha, a government schoolteacher who was travelling along the road to reach her school. Police said she taught at the MPP School in Maddirebu village under Pinakota panchayat. Her death highlights the exposure of ordinary road users to hazards at active construction and widening sites, particularly on routes where vehicles, workers and local commuters share constrained carriageways.
The other deceased were identified as Mani, Narayana Rao, Pavan Kumar and another person. The three workers were reportedly at the site when the explosion occurred. The vehicle was carrying gelatin sticks that had been placed for the ongoing road-widening project on the ghat road.
Gelatin sticks are explosive materials used for controlled blasting and other construction-related work. Their presence at a road project places responsibilities on contractors and site supervisors covering storage, transport, handling, ignition sources and separation from public traffic. The report does not specify which agency or contractor was responsible for the material, nor whether the explosives had been formally cleared for use at the site.
The incident took place on a ghat road in a hilly part of the district, where road construction and widening can operate alongside regular movement between villages and public institutions. In such settings, a worksite is not an isolated construction zone: local residents, school staff, drivers and other road users may continue using the route throughout the project.
Police have not yet announced a final cause or details of any case, safety inspection or accountability process. Rescue teams and investigators were continuing efforts to determine how the fire began and how the gelatin sticks were being handled when the vehicle exploded.
