Chennai, Sept. 11: Tamil Nadu police today seized 100 kg of the explosive ammonium nitrate, 1,200 gelatine sticks and more than 300 detonators from Krishnagiri district.

Two persons from the district on the border with Andhra Pradesh have been arrested for unlicensed possession of the explosive substances, police sources said. It was not known whether the two have any links with Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh, they added.

The police have begun an intensive search of closed small-scale units in the Ambattur industrial estate today to trace the source of a cache of rockets and launchers seized in Andhra last week.

The arms are believed to have been sent between May 2005 and May 2006 in vehicles of the private operator Kranti Transport Services in suburban Ambattur.

The search began after a tip-off from Andhra police that a closed unit in the area could have been used to make the arms, the sources said.

A police team from Andhra had conducted a search of lathe units across Chennai yesterday, as the crude rockets could have been assembled even in small lathes, they said.

This was followed up today with the combing of closed and sick small-scale units in the Ambattur area with assistance from Tamil Nadu police.

Police are trying to find out if the arms and explosives were brought from some other place and stored in Ambattur before being transported to Andhra or whether they were made in Tamil Nadu itself.

They are also probing the possibility of the explosives having been sourced from Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi, famous for its fireworks industry.

Fresh haul

Andhra Pradesh police today found six parcels containing 297 rocket shells, six launchers and two digital meters in a scrapyard in Vijayawada.

The scrap dealer told the police that the materials were sold to him three months ago by Kranti Transport Services, which is believed to have ferried the arms that were seized in Andhra last week.