Bhubaneswar, Oct. 27: Around 150 persons sustained burn injuries while another 50 were injured in road accidents during Diwali celebrations last night.

Around 13 houses also caught fire during the celebrations, resulting in the destruction of property worth more than Rs 15 lakh.

Of the injured, 30 were admitted to SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack as their condition was stated to be critical. However, police sources said very few people were fined this Diwali for violating the time limit set for bursting of crackers. The city was silent by 11pm.

Capital Hospital sources said around 200 injured persons were rushed to the hospital last night.

“While the majority of people had burn injuries, others were injured in road accidents. The flow of patients continued till evening. Most had sustained burns on their hands and faces,” said hospital sources. Some of them had to be shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital after their condition deteriorated.

The fire brigade was kept busy as 13 incidents of fire were reported. A fire brigade official said that at around 8pm, a garage and hotel caught fire at the Unit-IV area following the bursting of firecrackers. Similarly, Babuli Muduli’s house in Gadakan area caught fire while crackers were being burst. Property worth Rs 2 lakh was destroyed in the incident. The police, who patrolled the city, successfully prevented bursting of crackers after 10pm.

“As police control room vans and jeeps kept patrolling with sirens blaring after 10pm, people stopped bursting crackers immediately,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Nitinjeet Singh.

The police had warned citizens before Diwali not to burst crackers that produced sound more than 125 decibels and to stop bursting crackers after 10pm.

The police had planned to soften the norms for one hour and would fine the violators after 11pm. But the PCR vans and police jeeps were instructed to patrol the lanes and roads of the colonies sounding the sirens to warn the revellers.

A senior police officer said that this was the first time police patrolled the city sounding sirens and by 10.30pm the city had become calm, barring occasional cracker sounds.

The DCP said there was hardly any violation of the norms put down by the city police for bursting of crackers, as around 40 vehicles kept on patrolling the areas.

Though some people said they stopped bursting crackers because of police patrolling, others said it was the high price that forced them to buy fewer crackers, which meant that by 10pm, they had burnt them all.

Rohit Sahu, a student at the Saheed Nagar area said that he was bursting crackers after 10 pm and the police caught him and his friends for violating the norms. “We knew about the rules, but we started off late and had many crackers so we were trying to finish them, when a PCR van came to us. The policemen took us in the van, but left us after sometime as we pleaded innocence,” said Sahu.

Police said that those who were seen violating the norms were mostly children. “We are counting the number of violators. But I am sure there were very few who were fined Rs 500,” the DCP added.