LAHORE: Four labourers were killed and 17 others, a safety engineer among them, were injured in a gas cylinder(s) explosion in a factory at the Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Estate on Friday.

The blast occurred in a section of Fine Gas Company (which manufactures industrial, medical and specialty gases) owned by Umar Latif Chaudhry. It damaged the factory structure and also partially affected adjacent units, witnesses and rescuers said. Some people said they heard the blast two kilometres away from the factory.

The late arrival of rescue services and the police prompted witnesses to start shifting victims to the Jinnah Hospital.

The Rescue 1122 Ambulance Service said the deceased were identified as 40-year-old Mujeeb Alam of Green Town, 45-year-old Bashir Ahmed of Kasur, 23-year-old Arshad Akram of Basti Charagh Shah, Kasur, and 40-year-old Muhammad Iqbal of Green Town.

The injured are Shahbaz, Asif, Zubair, Afzal, Ramzan, Sajjad, Sajid, Zahid, Arif, Arshad, Farooq, Abdul Jabbar, Aziz, Umair, Arsalan and Umar.

Sadar SP Awais Malik said preliminary investigation suggested that the incident took place during decanting process in cylinders from a large plant to smaller one.

He said the district officer environment in his initial inquiry confirmed that safety equipment was out of order and certain measures were not adopted by the management.

The inquiry further said the safety equipment was not checked for an unspecified period of time.

The police registered a case against the factory owner and six employees under sections 302, 324, 285, 286 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 3/4 of the Explosives Act, and 2/3 of the Standard Quality Control Act on the complaint of DO environment. The police were conducting raids to arrest them.

“I was gardening when a sudden explosion shook the entire area. Some stones hit me with a great intensity. I initially thought a transformer installed nearby exploded but it turned out to be a blast in the factory situated in front of my workplace,” said Abdul Ghani.

Mr Ghani told Dawn that black smoke was seen arising from the factory and there were screams everywhere.

He said some factory guards and employees escaped, leaving the injured trapped under the debris.

But some other people who were joined by workers of adjacent factories started rescuing the injured.

He said Rescue 1122 ambulances arrived almost half an hour late, followed by the police. The police sealed the factory.

Usman, another witness, said the blast was so intense that it broke windowpanes of all nearby factories and partially damaged structures. He said he initially thought a bomb blast had ripped the factory area.

A large number of people gathered and most remained silent spectators, Usman added.

As the workers were seen loading the damaged cylinders outside the factory on donkey-carts, one could assume it was more than one cylinder blast.

A factory employee said the incident took place in a section where oxygen cylinders were re-filled. He said it was an accident in which their safety engineer also was injured.

The family of deceased Mujeeb alleged that sheer negligence and safety violations by the factory management led to the tragedy.

“If gas leakage has led to the explosion, where was the safety staff? Why alarm didn’t work and labourers working in the section were not removed from the building in time,” questioned Raheem Mughal, a cousin of Mujeeb.

He told this reporter by phone that Mujeeb, a father of three, had been living in a rented house and doing work in the factory for the last 15 years or so. He said a number of family members of the three deceased were at the morgue of Jinnah Hospital and still awaiting handing over of the bodies.

Mughal said some factory employees associated with sales section remained present at the hospital. He said the families wanted from the owner written assurances about payment of dues and compensation and they also protested outside the hospital for being denied possession of the bodies.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed deep sense of sorrow and grief over the loss of lives. He sought a report from the departments concerned and also directed officials to ensure best treatment facilities for the injured.

The district coordination officer formed a six-member committee which will come up with an inquiry report within 24 hours.