A cache of seized explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least nine people and wounding 32 others, police reported on Saturday. The explosion happened in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, the region’s main city, late Friday as forensic experts and police were examining the material, said Nalin Prabhat, the region’s police director-general. He ruled out foul play, describing it as an accident.

The deceased included six police and forensic officials, two civil administrators, and one civilian, authorities said. Some of the injured remained in critical condition. The massive blast tore through the police station, igniting it and several vehicles. According to the Press Trust of India news agency, small successive explosions delayed immediate rescue efforts.

The police station incident followed Monday’s fatal car blast in New Delhi, which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort. Indian officials labelled it a “heinous terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces.”

The car explosion occurred hours after police in Kashmir announced they had dismantled a suspected militant cell operating from the disputed region, arresting at least seven people—including two doctors from Indian cities—and seizing a large quantity of bomb-making material in Faridabad, near New Delhi.

Indian security agencies have since conducted a series of raids in Kashmir as part of the car blast investigation, questioning hundreds and detaining scores of others.

Indian police said Saturday they used DNA to identify the car’s driver as a Kashmiri doctor. Government forces demolished his family home in the southern district of Pulwama on Thursday night, officials said.

In the past, troops have demolished homes of suspects accused of ties to militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir as punishment.

Police had transported the explosive material seized in Faridabad to Kashmir for the investigation and stored it “securely in an open area” at the police station, where the probe into the suspected militant cell began last month, according to Prabhat, the top officer.

Prabhat said a team of experts was taking samples for forensic analysis when the blast happened, calling it an “accidental explosion.”

He said: “Any other speculation into the cause of this incident is unnecessary.”

The explosion was audible from miles away in Srinagar, locals said. Some victims’ body parts were recovered from nearby houses, more than 328 feet (100 metres) from the police station. Multiple houses also sustained damage.

Bashir Ahmed, a resident, said: “The explosion produced a deafening roar that rattled houses and flung open windows closed tight.”

Nearly a dozen relatives of Mohammad Shafi Parray, killed in the blast, gathered at his home in Nowgam and marched in protest to the police station, chanting: “We want justice.”

One of Parray’s relatives, who did not give her name, said the deceased, a tailor by profession, had been summoned by police Friday night. She shouted: “Why did (the police) take him?”

A local police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with departmental policy, said the tailor had been called to the station to stitch bags for storing explosive material samples.

India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.