At least 89 dead in Indian gas explosion, with schoolchildren feared among casualties

At least 89 people died when a cooking gas cylinder exploded in a packed restaurant in India's central Madhya Pradesh state on Saturday morning, police said, with the blast shattering nearby buildings.

The death toll rose rapidly from an initial count of 20 after rescuers recovered dozens more bodies from the debris of the destroyed restaurant and neighbouring structures in the town of Petlawad in Jhabua district. 

"Earlier we thought it was 104 based on various reports coming to us but now our own official information says 85 confirmed deaths," M. L. Gond, an  inspector in charge of Jhabua's police control room, told Agence France-Presse. Police later revised the number up to 89, the Associated Press reported.

Arun Kumar Sharma, chief medical officer of Jhabua district, said from a local hospital that about 100 people were injured in the blast, 20 of them seriously.

Disaster stuck around breakfast time in the town of Petlawad, which is about 800 kilometres south of New Delhi, when the gas cylinder blew up and set fire to explosives stored nearby, police said. 

Dozens of office workers and schoolchildren were among the restaurant's customers at the time, senior district police official Seema Alava said.