LAHORE: At least five workers were killed and three suffered injuries when a huge fire broke out in a steel mill on the outskirts of the city on Monday evening.

The cause of the fire could not be ascertained immediately, but eyewitnesses said the blaze might have flared up during unloading of fuel from a tanker which exploded with a bang on the premises of the factory.

The incident took place when rescuers were making a last-ditch effort to pull out a 15-year-old boy buried under the debris of the factory in the Sundar Industrial Estate which collapsed on Nov 4. At least 46 workers died in that incident.

The blaze spread steadily because the steel factory also housed a small oil depot, eyewitnesses said. The flames could be seen from afar, they said, as the blaze engulfed a major portion of the Waheed Iron Factory in Burki.

Many people insist that the lax enforcement of health and safety standards and labour inspection laws by the Punjab government was a major cause of frequent industrial accidents and workers’ deaths.

Eyewitnesses said workers from nearby factories rushed out in panic after the flames engulfed the factory.

The rescuers put out the fire after more than an hour.

The condition of the injured was stated to be stable, a rescuer said, adding that workers were carrying out their routine work when the incident took place.

An eyewitness said some workers could not find their way out of the building when the fire broke out.

“I heard many explosions followed by huge flames rising up to the sky,” Salman, a worker from a nearby factory, told newsmen.

Police arrested the factory supervisor.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2015