Woman, four kids die in gas explosion

An electric spark caused by leakage flattens two houses

LAHORE:

Four children and a woman were killed and 12 other people injured after a gas leak caused an explosion in Burki, Lahore area.

 Two houses collapsed due to the explosion. The Punjab chief minister also sought a report on the incident.

According to police, a call was received on the emergency number at 6:30am on Tuesday that a loud explosion had been heard in Pangali village on Burki Road.

Station House Officer (SHO) Qamar Abbas told The Express Tribune that when he reached the spot, two house covering about 14 marlas had collapsed and there was smell of gas in the area.

 Locals told police that Farhad and Tasawur were living with their families in the two houses and their wives and children were trapped under the debris.

The SHO said a rescue team started removing the debris and the police also helped it. The rescuers and police rescued 12 people, including four children and three women, from the rubble.

However, 40-year-old Abida was killed on the spot, while six-year[1]old Hadi and three-year-old Hurriya Fatima died later in Mayo Hospital and eight-year-old Ali Musa and six -year-old Sherry at Services Hospital.

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Ramzan Bibi, Minhaj Bibi, Narjis Batool, Tasawur and Faryam are undergoing treatment in the hospitals, while seven injured people were discharged after medical aid.

SHO Qamar Abbas said that according to the initial investigation and the statement of the injured Tasawur, Farhad and Tasawur went to sleep with their families at 11pm.

 A gas leakage occurred in a house during the night. The gas accumulated in rooms due to closed doors and when someone woke up in the morning and turned on the light of a washroom, a spark in the switch caused an explosion, due to which the roof of the house collapsed.

An eyewitness, Saifullah, said his house was half a kilometer away from the spot of the accident. The explosion was so severe that the windows of his house were shattered.

 Saifullah said that he thought after the blast that some nearby place might have come under attack.

He went to the roof and saw that the house of Tasawur had collapsed, from where screams could be heard.

Investigation in-charge Naveed Awan said the police took the bodies from the hospitals and handed them over to the heirs.

DSP Burki Rashid Tahim asked the heirs if they wanted action against someone, but they said it was an accident, upon which the police com[1]pleted the documentation.

The funeral prayers of the victims were offered in the evening in a ground of Pangali village and they were buried in a nearby graveyard.

 A large number of area residents and several police officers attended the funeral prayers. SP Cantonment Saeed Aziz forwarded the initial report on the incident to the CCPO for its submission to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

Similar explosions took place two years ago in the Defence area and six months ago at a bank near Chauburji. No casualties were reported but nearby buildings were damaged and panic spread in the areas after the earlier incidents.