Berhampur: Days ahead of the festive season, police carried out a massive raid on an illegal firecrackers godown in Odisha's Ganjam district today. A huge cache of firecrackers worth lakhs was seized during the crackdown. 

The raid took place at Sundarpur within Chhatrapur police limits. One person has been detained in this connection. 

As per reports, Chhatrapur police along with a magistrate carried out searches in the warehouse after getting a tip-off about illegal firecrackers being stocked up there. Acting on the credible intelligence, a team including Chhatrapur SDPO Chandan Kumar Ghadei, IIC IIC Sabyasachi Malla, Additional Tehsildar and acting magistrate N Rabi Pradhan and other police personnel raided three houses of one Papun Patra in Tower Sahi.

During search, crackers were found to be stored without any proper license which is a violation of safety guidelines. Preliminary assessment of the seized firecrackers is said to be over Rs 10 lakh. Police is now probing the source of firecrackers and the possibility of a larger network operating in the area, official sources said. They further informed that many more raids will be carried out in coming days to curb illegal storage and sale of firecrackers which pose a threat to safety during festivities.