A woman injured in the explosion at a firecracker factory in South 24-Parganas Dholahat succumbed at the SSKM Hospital on Tuesday morning taking the death toll to eight.

The explosion occurred on Monday around 9.30 pm, where seven members of the Banik family, including a toddler were charred to death. Some others were rescued and brought to the Kakdwip hospital and SSKM.

A day after the explosion the main opposition BJP demanded the probe be handed over to the National Investigation Agency.

“This is not the first time that such an incident has happened. We keep demanding for a fair probe to find out the culprits but the police do nothing about it,” BJP leader Dilip Ghosh told The Telegraph Online. “We demand a probe by the central agency to find out what kind of explosives were stored here, who were the people involved, why was a firecracker factory allowed to operate in a residential area?”

The BJP leader also questioned whether the raw material that exploded after a fire was indeed used for firecrackers or more lethal explosive devices.

“It is unlikely that raw material for firecrackers could cause such an explosion,” Ghosh said.

The BJP state president and junior union minister Sukanta Majumdar said he would write to the union home minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention.

“We cannot let this procession of death continue,” Majumdar said.

Samir Jana, the local MLA from the Trinamool said the factory was operating with a license to manufacture firecrackers.

“We found four kids and two adults dead in the debris,” said a local resident.

The impact of the explosion was such that the house was reduced to rubble.

The locals alleged the raw materials and the finished fire crackers were stored inside the Banik residence. Chandrakanta Banik and his brother Tushar Kanti ran the factory.

In the last two years, over 20 people have lost their lives in different instances of explosions in illegal firecracker factories in East Midnapore, South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas and Nadia.