Cracker explosion spreads panic

HYDERABAD: The windowpanes of a couple of flats broke and the compound wall of a house developed cracks on account of a big explosion that occurred when crackers dumped in a garbage-bin went off in Video Colony at Miyapur here on Thursday afternoon. Panic-stricken residents thought at first that the blast was that of an LPG cylinder and, later, as the blast occurred in a dumpyard, thought it was a detonator.But police, who arrived on the scene along with a bomb disposal squad and sniffer dogs, found that the explosion was the result of burning of crackers.“Fi re-crackers wer e dumped by some persons and the local municipal authorities dumped the garbage in the open plot and set it on fire.The crackers went off with a huge explosive sound, damaging the windowpanes of nearby houses.No one was injured,’’ Miyapur police inspector S Bheem Reddy said