A major fire broke out in a factory located in Mahuwa area of Rajasthan's Dausa district, officials said on Saturday.
"It was a pattal- dona (plates) manufacturing unit which caught fire at around 3 am on Friday. Fire brigades were pressed into service but they could not control the fire after which fire brigades from Jaipur were also called," police said.
SHO Mahuwa Police Station Buddhi Prakash said that crude oil-like substance is coming out from the factory and there is a strong possibility that stolen crude oil was stored in the factory.
Police suspect that oil was allegedly stolen from a pipeline passing from about 100-metres away from the factory. The oil is the reason firefighters are finding it difficult to put out the fire, they said.
"Several fire brigades are engaged in fire-fighting for hours but there is not much control on the fire. The factory is not a big one but flames are raging," SHO Buddhi Prakash said.
He said that there is no confirmation whether any worker was present in the factory or not.
District collector Qummer Ul Zaman Choudhary and Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Gupta reached the spot to take stock of the situation.
Mr Choudhary said whether the substance flowing out of the factory was crude oil or not can be said only after it is examined by an expert.
"There could be a possibility of its being a crude oil but anything conclusive cannot be said at the moment. The fire is continuing and efforts are being made to control it," the collector said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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