Safety hazard: Six injured as gas cylinder explodes

BAHAWALPUR: As many as six people were injured when a gas cylinder exploded in a hotel late on Tuesday night. A Rescue 1122 spokesman said that the gas cylinder being used in a hotel on the National Highway exploded after someone lit a match close by. He said six people had been injured. He said that Muhammad Akram, Nadeem Ahmad, Shaukat Ali and Khan Muhammad received minor injuries and went home after they were given first aid. He said Maqsood Ahmad and Sabir Ali were taken to a hospital in a critical condition. Doctors treating them later said their condition was stable. Separately, unprocessed cotton worth millions of rupees was burnt after a fire broke out in a cotton ginning factory on Shahbazpur Road in Rahim Yar Khan on Wednesday. A Rescue 1122 spokesman said the fire had broken out at around 11am. He said it had spread quickly and engulfed two floors of the factory. He said Rescue 1122 and TMA’s Fire Brigade had put out the fire after two hours of being informed. He said factory workers had informed them that someone had thrown a cigarette on a pile of cotton which had started the fire.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2015.