RAWALPINDI, Jan 19: A fire caused by leaking gas blew up a bank in the city early Saturday morning, killing its security guard and injuring seriously four others, police and rescuers said.

Rescue 1122 team arriving at the shattered Soneri Bank at Chandni Chowk rushed the injured to nearby Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) and removed the charred body of security guard Aurangzaib to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) for autopsy.

None of the injured could say what caused the blast which created widespread panic as it shattered windows in buildings all around the bank.

But since the blast badly damaged the basement and the first floor of the commercial building in which the bank is located it was presumed that gas leaking from the main pipeline passing by the building had accumulated in its basement. Someone lighting a match closely might have set it on fire.

Mohammad Tahir, whose Alnajam Fried Chicken fast-food outlet is located next to the bank, said that for some days he had been smelling gas near the main pipeline feeding the building.

Though emergency services responded to his repeated complaints but did nothing, he said.

Police arriving at the scene collected some evidence and recorded statements of the victims.

Niaz Ali, nephew of the dead security guard and himself a guard, told Dawn lying in his hospital bed that he was inside the bank when “all of a sudden a mighty explosion took place around 7:30am”.

“My uncle was standing outside at the gate. The fireball threw him onto the road. A passerby and a motorcyclist were hit by the flying glass,” he said.

Doctors said Niaz and the two other injured, Asad Ali and Ghulam Fareed, were in stable condition.

It was the third such gas explosion in the city in as many days but the first which claimed a life. In the previous incidents 14 schoolchildren and 10 other persons were injured.

Police said the bank’s manager, Shahid Hameed, registered a case of negligence against the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) with the New Town police station late in the evening.