At least 9 killed and 32 injured in an explosion at an Indian-controlled Kashmir police station

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least nine people and injuring 32 others, police said on Saturday.

The blast occurred in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, the region’s main city, late Friday when a team of forensic experts and police were examining the explosive material, said Nalin Prabhat, the region’s police director-general. He ruled out any foul play, saying it was an accident.

The dead included six police and forensic officials, two civil administrators and one civilian, authorities said. Some of the injured were in critical condition.

The huge blast ripped through the police station, setting it and multiple vehicles on fire. According to the news agency Press Trust of India, small successive explosions prevented immediate rescue operations.

The police station blast came days after Monday’s deadly car explosion in New Delhi, which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort. Indian officials called it a “heinous terror incident” carried out by “anti-national forces.” The car blast happened hours after police in Kashmir said they had dismantled a suspected militant cell operating from the disputed region, arresting at least seven people, including two doctors from Indian cities, and seizing a large quantity of bomb-making material in the city of Faridabad, near New Delhi.

Indian security agencies have since carried out a series of raids in Kashmir as part of their investigation into the car blast, questioning hundreds while detaining scores others.

Indian police said Saturday they used DNA to identify the car's driver and that he was a Kashmiri doctor. Government forces blew up his family home in the southern district of Pulwama on Thursday night, officials said.

In the past, troops have demolished homes of suspects they accuse of being tied to militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir as a punishment.

Police had brought the explosive material seized in Faridabad to Kashmir as part of their investigation and were “kept securely in an open area” at the police station, where the investigation that led to the suspected militant cell began last month, according to Prabhat, the top officer.

Prabhat said a team of experts was taking samples for forensic investigation when the blast occurred, calling it an “accidental explosion.”

“Any other speculation into the cause of this incident is unnecessary,” he said.

The blast could be heard from miles away in Srinagar, locals said. Some of the victims' body parts were recovered from nearby houses, over 100 meters (328 feet) away from the police station. Multiple houses also suffered damage.

“The explosion produced a deafening roar that rattled houses and flung open windows closed tight,” Bashir Ahmed, a resident, told The Associated Press.

Nearly a dozen relatives of Mohammad Shafi Parray, killed in the blast, assembled at his home in Nowgam and marched in protest to the police station, chanting: “We want justice.”

One of Parry's relatives, who didn't give her name, said the deceased, a tailor by profession, was summoned by the police Friday night. “Why did (the police) take him?" she shouted.

A local police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said the tailor had been called to the station to stitch bags for storing explosive material samples.

India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.

Relatives of Mohammad Shafi Parray, a Kashmiri civilian who was killed when a cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station, mourn as they wait for his body outside his residence in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A veiled Kashmiri woman is stopped by an Indian police officer before being allowed to pass a temporary checkpoint near the site of an explosion inside a police station in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Relatives of Mohammad Shafi Parray, a Kashmiri civilian who was killed when a cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station, mourn as they wait for his body outside his residence in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian police officers patrol near the site of an explosion inside a police station in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yasin Dar)

Ambulances leave the site of an explosion inside a police station in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yasin Dar)

Indian security forces stand near the site of an explosion inside a police station in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yasin Dar)

A police officer, standing center and wearing black, talks to relatives of injured colleagues near the site of an explosion inside a police station in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yasin Dar)

OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) — Authorities hunted Saturday for the last of three inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail after removing concrete blocks from a deteriorating wall.

“We would prefer that he surrender himself peaceably,” St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz said in a statement, "but we will not rest until he is captured.”

Detectives and SWAT officers were following leads Saturday in pursuit of 24-year-old Keith Eli, who remained at large three days after he and two other inmates escaped the parish jail in southwestern Louisiana, said Maj. Mark LeBlanc, a spokesman for the sheriff. Eli had been jailed on a charge of second-degree murder.

One of the escapees, 24-year-old Johnathan Jevon Joseph, was captured Friday following a brief chase. LeBlanc said investigators following a tip found Joseph, who was jailed on charges of rape and other crimes, hiding out at a home. Joseph ran to a nearby storage shed, where he surrendered after being cornered, LeBlanc said.

The third escapee, 26-year-old Joseph Allen Harrington, killed himself with a hunting rifle Thursday after police found him at a home and used a loudspeaker to urge him to come out, said Port Barre Police Chief Deon Boudreaux. Before his escape, Harrington had faced several felony charges, including home invasion.

It wasn't the first bold jail escape in Louisiana this year. In May, 10 inmates broke out of a New Orleans jail after crawling through a hole behind a toilet and leaving a message that read “To Easy LoL.” Authorities searched across multiple states for the escapees as local officials pointed fingers over who was to blame for the jailbreak. It took five moths before all 10 inmates were recaptured.

As sheriff, Guidroz oversees the St, Landry Parish jail in Opelousas, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans. He has said the inmates escaped after discovering “a degrading part of an upper wall area” and over time managed to remove the mortar holding the wall's concrete blocks together. That enabled them to remove enough blocks to slip through the wall.

The inmates then used sheets to scale the jail's outer wall, drop onto a first-floor roof and lower themselves to the ground, Guidroz said in a news release Wednesday.

The sheriff said the breakout will be investigated internally.

This photo provided by St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office shows Keith Eli, 24, of Opelousas, one of three inmates who escaped from a southwestern Louisiana jail, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office via AP)