LAHORE, June 10: A labourer was killed and two others suffered injuries in a scrap blast at a godown in Misri Shah on Friday night.

“The labourers were offloading scrapped ammunition from a truck when it exploded at the godown, owned by Mian Kabir,” SP Dr Usman Anwar told Dawn on telephone. He said three labourers suffered critical injuries.

The police, together with other civic agencies, including bomb disposal squad and fire tenders, rushed to the scene and joined the residents who had already launched a rescue operation.

The SP said the injured were taken to the Mayo Hospital. One of them was received dead on arrival at the hospital, and the other two were being treated till late at night.

The deceased could not be identified till last reports came in. His body was sent to the city mortuary for autopsy.

The SP said a case had been registered against the godown owner and contractor Muhammad Iqbal. He claimed that the contractor had been arrested and further investigation was under way.

The incident had occurred in the same locality where a blast took place two weeks ago, but was hushed up allegedly after police and some crime reporters received bribe. The earlier blast had claimed lives of two labourers.

However, the incident came to surface two days after it had taken place at a godown owned by Zubair alias Zubairi.

Lahore operations police chief Aftab Cheema, on a report by Naulakha police ASP Dr Abid, had detected the hushing up of the incident. An inquiry into the matter is still in progress to bring the culprits to book.