Minor boy dies, six injured in gas cylinder explosion

A boy died while six family members were wounded in a gas cylinder explosion at their house in New Karachi’s Sector 5-D on Thursday.

The blast was so loud that it was heard miles away. A heavy contingent of law enforcers, including police and Rangers, reached the scene and cordoned off the area. Volunteers from welfare organisations retrieved the injured from the rubble and transported them to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced eight-year-old Mazhar, son of Adil, dead while the injured were identified as Unzila, Fazalur Rehman, Adil, Nousheen, Saba and Saifullah. They were later moved to the burns ward of the Civil Hospital and the condition of two was said to be critical.

According to SHO Farzad Shaikh, bomb disposal squad experts were also called to the scene. They, in their initial findings, ruled out the possibility of any criminal act and said the blast occurred due to gas leakage. They said the family was using the cylinder due to gas loadshedding. However, they said, someone might have left the nob on the stove on during the night between Wednesday and Thursday and when the gas service got restored it caught fire apparently when a cigarette or a match stick was lit near the stove. The cylinder caught fire and exploded. Police said that Adil along with his family lived in a rented house.

Road accident

A man was killed and his nephew wounded when a speedy tanker and a trailer collided near Jogi Morr, Quaidabad, in Landhi. The deceased and the injured were taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center for medico-legal formalities, where the deceased person was identified as Khan, who was the tanker driver, while his injured nephew as Daniyal.