An explosion at a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh state has killed at least 15 people, according to a government official.

Rescue operations were under way late on Wednesday after a fire broke out at the privately held Escientia Advanced Sciences’s 40-acre (16-hectare) manufacturing unit in the state’s Anakapalli district.

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“Death toll as of now is 15 and is likely to go up. Nearly 40 people have been injured. Rescue operations under way,” District Superintendent of Police M Deepika told the Reuters news agency.

The blast occurred during lunchtime at the pharma factory, which began operating in 2019, said district collector Vijaya Krishnan. The company manufactures intermediate chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients, local media reports said.

“The injured have been shifted to nearby hospitals … It appears that there could have been a blast at the chemical reactor,” his office told Reuters.

The state government has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

“The workers who died or were injured do the most crucial and dangerous jobs,” L Srinivas Rao, a local politician told The Indian Express newspaper.

An officer from Atchutapuram police station in Anakapalli told the newspaper that those injured or killed suffered extensive chemical burns, their “skin peeling off” as a result of the blast.

“It was horrible, heartbreaking. They were screaming before they lost consciousness,” M Buchaiah said.

Six fire engines were deployed to the scene, with the National Disaster Response Force also aiding rescue efforts, India’s NDTV network reported.

Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu expressed grief over the workers killed.

“The [chief minister] assured that the government will stand by the families of the workers who died,” his office said in a statement.

Last year, two people were killed and five others injured in a similar accident at another pharma factory in Anakapalli district.