"So far 18 bodies have been recovered," said Gaurav Goyal, a senior administrative official in Ajmer, the district where the blast occurred, about 200 kilometres from the state capital Jaipur. Recovery teams were sifting through mangled heaps of concrete and steel, removing victims on stretchers covered with white sheets. The blast all but levelled the three-storey hotel where a wedding was underway. Eyewitnesses told local broadcaster NDTV the explosion occurred as a chef tried to refill a cooking canister. "The cylinder blast at the wedding ceremony at Beawar is nothing less than a nightmare," she said on Twitter.

Source: The Nation Bangkok February 18, 2018 12:53 UTC