Raigad (Maharashtra), Jul 14 (IANS): Two persons were killed and one injured seriously when a blast took place in a steel factory in Raigad's Khopoli area early on Tuesday morning, officials said.

According to Police Inspector Dhanaji Kshirsagar of the Khopoli Police Station, the blast occurred inside the Indian Steel Works Ltd. plant at around 1.15 a.m., with the three workers taking the full impact of the explosion.

"Preliminary investigations suggest it may have been due to a leaking LPG gas cylinder when a process of dissolving raw iron materials was underway," Kshirsagar told IANS.

The deceased have been identified as Pramod D. Sharma, 30, and Dinesh W. Chavan, 55.

Another co-worker Subhash D. Wanjale was critically hurt and is battling for life in a hospital in Navi Mumbai (Thane).

The impact of the blast was so severe that the bodies of the two victims were blown to bits, and several homes in the vicinity were shaken.

With branches in India, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Lithuania and Singapore, the company is engaged in recycling scrap, ferro-alloys and fluxes into steel bars and wires, and the blast is suspected to have occurred in a gas cylinder during processing.