A total of 82 people have been killed in two nearly simultaneous explosions in a crowded restaurant in central India, according to police.

Inspector Mewa Lal Gond says a cooking gas cylinder exploded in the restaurant and triggered a second blast of detonators stored nearby.

He says 82 bodies were retrieved from the site of the explosion.

Mr Gond says the restaurant, located in Petlawad town in Madhya Pradesh state, was full of people having breakfast when the blasts occurred.

Arun Sharma, a state health official, says doctors at a government hospital in the nearby district town of Jhabua conducted post-mortem examinations of 60 victims. The bodies were then handed over to the victims' families.

Mr Gond says about 35 other people were hospitalised with injuries.

Residents were evacuated from several adjoining buildings that were damaged in the blasts.

Police struggled to keep hundreds of onlookers and people looking for their relatives away from the site of the explosions.

The crowds hampered the movement of ambulances and other emergency vehicles, and officers had to push them back to allow a bulldozer to reach the restaurant, which was next to a bus station.

Police said the detonators were stored illegally in a room adjacent to the restaurant. The explosive material is used by miners for blasting operations.

Petlawad is about 590 miles south of New Delhi.