SAHIWAL: As many as 110 people were injured, four of them critically, when a massive blast occurred at an LPG decanting outlet on Railway Road on Sunday.

The blast was so powerful that four adjacent shops were totally demolished, while windowpanes of many others were broken.

According to sources, Rao Amanat Ali, the owner, had been illegally running the LPG decanting outlet for around five years.

According to an eyewitness who was also injured, the blast occurred when a customer threw a burning cigarette in the shop where a small cylinder was being refilled.

This, he said, caused a chain reaction as two big cylinders lying nearby also exploded simultaneously.

The blast caused panic among the shopkeepers and residents of the area.

It took Rescue 1122 firefighters some three hours to extinguish the blaze and rescue those trapped under the debris of the destroyed structures.

Provincial minister Malik Nadeem Kamran, who was in his hometown, rushed to spot and supervised the rescue operation along with officers of district administration.

The injured who could be immediately identified include Rana Aslam, Kamran, Rizwan, Ahmed Saeed, Ahmed Ali, Atif, Asif, Akhter and Waqas.

The LPG outlet owner who is said to be brother of a PML-N district leader was still at large.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2015

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