Bhubaneswar, Jan. 13: Three persons were injured when an oxygen cylinder exploded at Bhushan steel plant near Dhenkanal late last night.

The three injured suffered serious burn injuries and were rushed to Cuttack for treatment.

The injured were identified as Sachin Gupta, 27, Santosh Singh, 40, and Satyendra Prasad, 34. All of them are employees of Bhushan Steel and hail from outside Odisha.

Gupta is an engineer while two others are technicians. Assistant director of factories and boilers Ramesh Behera said the mishap occurred around 11pm last night.

“The explosion took place at oxygen line in the steel melting shop of phase-II of the steel plant while maintenance work were being carried out,” he said.

This is not the first accident of the year at the 3.1 million tonne steel plant.

Four workers were killed and three were injured when a cylinder burst in the plant’s labour colony on January 6. The next day, one person was injured when an iron beam fell on him at phase-II.

Labour minister Bijoyshree Routray told The Telegraph that he had sought a report on the incidents.

“After receipt of the report, I will take appropriate action,” he said.

The frequent mishaps at the Bhushan plant have triggered panic among the workers.

“The lives of the workers are unsafe as there are no proper safety measures,” said Pratap Biswal, a trade unionist.

Last week, steel and mines minister Rajanikanta Singh had asked the Dhenkanal collector B.C. Panda to inquire and submit a report on the previous incidents. Accordingly, Panda had inspected the plant last week.

“I have submitted a report to the government,” he said.

Senior manager of Bhushan Steel Subhankar Tripathy said the plant management was taking all precautionary measures to avoid accidents by implementing safety norms.

“But accidents are accidents,” he said admitting that the year had began on a very disturbing note.

State labour department figures show 56 deaths of factory workers and employees were reported in 122 accidents in 2011-12 across the state. Thirty-two people working at various factories had died in mishaps till August, 2012.