SUKKUR: Five persons were affected when a gas explosion ripped through several shops and damaged their shutters at the Clock Tower roundabout in Kandhkot city on Monday.

The explosion was caused by leakage of gas from a pipeline running through the shops. Fearing arrival of many affected people, a medical emergency was declared at the Kandhkot Civil Hospital. However, the blast affected only a few persons as there was little movement of people in the locality. Most shops at the blast site were kept closed in pursuance of the lockdown enforced to prevent further spread of Covid-19.

The affected persons — a tailor, his co-workers and a passerby — were taken to the emergency section of the civil hospital, where doctors referred them to major hospitals in Larkana, Sukkur and Rahim Yar Khan. They were identified as Ashok Kumar Meghwar, Wazir Naseerani, Rafaqat, Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Alam.

Owners of the damaged shops told local reporters that they had been smelling gas for some time and repeatedly lodged complaints with the local office of the Sui Southern Gas Company about the leakage. However, they said, no one from the gas utility turned up to plug the leakage until the problem resulted in the blast.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2021