New Delhi: At least 82 people were killed in a town in central India on Saturday when a cooking gas cylinder blew up in a restaurant and set fire to explosives stored nearby, police said.

The gas cylinder exploded as people were gathering for breakfast at the restaurant in the town of Petlawad in the state of Madhya Pradesh, about 800 km (500 miles) south of New Delhi, Inspector B.L. Gaur told Reuters.

At least 82 people were injured, Gaur added.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers pull more bodies from under the rubble of the collapsed building, another police official said.

Indian TV channel NDTV said more than 80 people were feared dead, without citing sources.

Gaur said the restaurant was near an area which stored gelatine sticks used at construction sites.

‘There was a second explosion, there were more casualties,’ Gaur said, adding the blast was so powerful it damaged adjacent buildings and ripped out nearby windows.

Television footage showed a crowd of people standing amid the rubble of a building as excavators started clearing debris from the site.

‘This is a tragic incident, which has shook me. The causes of the incident will be investigated,’ Madhya Pradesh’s chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told local television channels.

Chouhan has announced compensation for the victims’ families, media reported.