Gas leak: One injured in gas pipeline blast

FAISALABAD:

At least one person was injured after a gas pipeline blew up early Wednesday morning in Guru Nanak Pura area. Panic spread the area and people came out of their houses. A vendor selling breakfast at a stall near the pipeline was injured. He was taken to a hospital, where doctors treating him said his condition was out of danger.

Residents of the area said that the explosion was so loud that it could be heard in the surrounding areas. They said windowpanes of many nearby houses were broken. “At first I thought it was an earthquake. The earth jolted so fast,” one of the residents of the area said. Another resident said that the pipe had been leaking for a few weeks. He said several complaints had been made to the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline authorities, but no one came to fix the problem. An SNGPL official denied having received any such complaint.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2012.