Chemical drums at scrap shop explode, killing boy

The explosion damaged buildings and left a two-foot deep crater in the ground.

KARACHI: A 12-year-old boy, identified as Babar Khan, died and 12 others were injured, including an infant girl, when a plastic drum of chemicals exploded near Bara Board, said the Pak Colony police.

The police said that the shop belonged to a scrap dealer, Abdul Wahid, and the explosion occurred when chemical drums placed near the shop caught fire. They suspected that someone was mixing the chemicals when it exploded, engulfing a rickshaw and damaging several shops. SSP West Amir Farooqui said that it was not a grenade attack or a bomb blast. The explosion left a two-foot deep and 27 inch long crater.

The injured were identified as one-year-old Umaima, eight-year-old Hamza, 13-year-old Muhammad Ahmed Khan, 16-year-old Allah Noor, 15-year-old Abdullah, Khairuddin, 35, Shahid, 28, Abdul Aziz, 44, Aneela, Abdul Waheed, Ashfaq, and Mushahid. They were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

"There were different kinds of chemicals such as sulfuric acid, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid present in the shop and it is likely that a spark occurred when someone tried to mix them," said a bomb disposal squad officer, Chanzaib Abbasi. He added that different particles were visible on nearby shops and buildings and that plastic drums and glass bottles were broken and all over the place.