April 03, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

FAISALABAD, April 2: Fourteen people were killed and 28 others were injured when a two-storey building on the Jhumra Road in the city’s Mansoorabad locality collapsed after explosion of some gas cylinders.

The district government has set up a relief camp near the blast site and declared an emergency in the DHQ and other hospitals.

Witnesses told Dawn that the building housing a godown of oxygen cylinders, a mini goods transport station, a tea stall and a wielding shop was razed to the ground by the powerful blast, trapping the people.

Most of the victims were drivers who were resting in the building at the time of the blast.

Local people started rescue work immediately after the blast and retrieved three bodies before the arrival of official teams.

Ambulances took the injured to hospitals. The rescue and relief work lasted about seven hours.

Talking to Dawn, Madina Town SP Malik Yousuf said the cause of the explosion was yet to be determined.

Four employees of Rescue 1122 were injured when a cylinder exploded during the operation. Those killed in the incident were identified as Sohaib and Ishtiaq (brothers), Mazhar Husain, Saleem Fauji, Baba Sarwar, Saleem, Arshad, Ihsanul Haq, Sarfraz, Irshad, Shakoor, Imtiaz Ahmed, Ghulam Hussain. One victim remained unidentified till late night.

A large number of people, relatives of the injured, crowded the hospitals for information about their loved ones.

Police faced a lot of difficulties in controlling the crowd and the traffic on the busy Jhumra Road.

A police source said that action would be taken against the owner of the godown. However, it was not known if he was alive.