LAHORE: Three people, including two women, were killed and 18 others injured in two incidents of gas cylinder blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad on Wednesday.

In Lahore, one person was killed and 11 injured when a cylinder exploded in a bakery in Ichhra.

Rescue 1122 teams doused the flames and shifted the injured to General and Services hospitals where four of the injured were said to be in a critical condition.

The staff of the bakery located on Ferozepur Road was busy cleaning up ahead of its opening when a blast occurred around 5:30am. The explosion was so powerful that it destroyed the entire bakery and the shutters of nearby shops also collapsed.

As a result, 12 workers including Ghulam Qadir, 65, Sajawal, 60, Matloob, 35, Farzan, 30, Sahib-i-Rehman, 55, Aqib, 25, Farzand, 24, Hamza, 22, Farhan Shakoor, 19, Usman, 19, Ayan Sadiq, 16, and Sajid Ali, 35, suffered injuries. Sajid Ali later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, while four others were said to be critical.

Police and Rescue teams cordoned off the road and continued the rescue operation for at least two hours. Police were also investigating the cause of the blast. However, rescue officials claimed that the blast took place due to gas leakage in the bakery.

In Faisalabad, two women were burnt to death and seven others sustained injuries when a cylinder caught fire on ABC Cinema Road late on Tuesday night.

Hotels, restaurant and other eating points witnessed an unprecedented load of people on Tuesday night who had been waiting to get food items as the gas supply remained suspended to various areas for more than 10 hours.

Rescue 1122 said a man carrying a cylinder on a bike came to a hotel. The cylinder fell on the ground and leakage started near the burning oven (tandoor) and it exploded immediately. Due to the explosion, the people standing near the tandoor sustained burn injuries. They were shifted to the Allied Hospital where Khalida Parveen, 60, and Gago, 55, succumbed to their burns.

Cylinder blast cases are common in Pakistan but there is no check on their quality.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2019