Eight killed in gas cylinder explosion
At least eight people died on Monday after a gas cylinder explosion caused walls of several shops to collapse in Mashkel, a town on the Iran border in Washuk district of Balochistan.
According to details, a gas welding cylinder exploded in a shop with a bang damaging several shops in the main market of the tehsil Mashkel and killing the shopkeepers and visitors on the spot.
The victims included a man and his three sons, while the other four bodies were identified as those of two traders and two customers.
After the incident, the nearby shopkeepers initiated rescue operation before the arrival of the Frontier Corps and Levies who later continued the operation.
The bodies were retrieved from the debris and shifted to a nearby hospital.
A Levies official said that according to the initial assessment it was a gas cylinder blast, while further investigation of the incident was ongoing.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2021.