Gas pressure: Panic in Anarkali after sewage line blasts

LAHORE:

Panic spread in Anarkali Bazaar after three loud explosions in the sewage lines at noon that sent manhole covers flying several feet into the air.

Firefighters and police and bomb disposal squad officials rushed to the scene after the three back-to-back blasts at around 12:10pm, which sent people running for cover at the Kachery Road Baber Market. Many feared it was a terrorist attack.

The bomb disposal squad searched the area and found no explosives.

A man suffered a head wound from a flying manhole while there was minor damage to a car. The police said that the blasts appeared to have been caused by a build-up of methane in the sewers. A Sui Northern Gas Pipeline official inspected the lines and he told the police that the gas pressure had steadily built up as there was no ventilation, said Inspector Javed Iqbal, the Old Anarkali station house officer. He said that no one had come to the police station to complain about damage to the car.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2011.