New Delhi, September 12 (RHC)-- At least 104 people have been killed and dozens of others injured after a gas cylinder exploded in a restaurant in central India, police officials say. The blast happened at around 8:30 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Saturday at a restaurant in Jhabua district of the central Madhya Pradesh State as dozens of office workers and schoolchildren were having breakfast, senior district police official Seema Alava told reporters.

The intensity of the blast reportedly knocked down a neighboring building and damaged several others. However, the cause of the explosion was not immediately clear, with police still investigating the incident.

State TV footage showed scores of rescuers and people using their bare hands to shift mangled heaps of steel and concrete of the crumbled buildings to help those trapped under the debris.