LAHORE, June 21: One person was killed and 18 injured in a gas explosion at Main Sadar Bazaar in North Cantonment on Tuesday. Seven of the injured were stated to be in serious condition. Police said a gas supply line passing through the bazaar had been leaking for some days. It was being repaired on Tuesday when leaked gas got filled in one of the shops owned by a jeweller, Mian Manzoor, and an explosion occurred when somebody lit a match.

There was already a gas cylinder inside the shop, the police claimed. As a result the roof and a wall of the shop collapsed. A neighbouring hotel also caught fire, critically injuring 19 people who suffered burns.

However, the shopkeeper denied that there was any gas cylinder in his shop. “I do not have any gas-related work. It is purely a fault of the gas company staff,” he told reporters. He said he had also visited the area office of the SNGPL to lodge a complaint about the gas leak hardly an hour before the incident took place.

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

The injured were taken to the Combined Military Hospital, Mayo Hospital and some private clinics. One of them, Muhammad Naeem (50) succumbed to his burns at 11pm. Of the injured, Nuzhat Bibi and her son Ali Raheel, 13, who were inside at the jewellery shop, were stated to be critical.

Quoting doctors, the police said they had burns from 20 to 50 per cent.

Further investigation is under way.

In the recent months, several gas blasts have occurred in the city, including the one at an illegal gas store at Allama Iqbal Town that claimed 29 lives. suicide: Two people allegedly committed suicide in separate incidents in the city on Tuesday.

Police said Musarrat Bibi, 37, of the Nishtar Colony had been worried over family affairs for some months. She took rat-poison and died in a nearby hospital. She was a mother of three.

Mohammad Eisa, 45, of Shalamar, had not been enjoying happy relations with his wife. Scuffles and exchange of harsh words had been a routine, the police said quoting the family. He took poison and died in a hospital.

Both the bodies were returned to the families without autopsy.

ACCIDENT: Ms Sumaira, 31, was trying to cross a road when a car hit her in Jauhar Town. She was rushed to the Jinnah Hospital where she died.