QUETTA: A gas explosion at a home killed six members of a family, including two women and four children, and injured four others in Quetta on Tuesday.

Two rooms of the house, located in the Sirki Kalan area near Double Road, collapsed after the blast and the victims were buried under the debris as a result, the police said.

Amin Jaffar, a senior police officer of the Industrial Police Station, confirmed that the blast occurred due to gas leakage. He said the explosion was so powerful that it also damaged some nearby houses and shattered the windowpanes of several nearby buildings.

The explosion happened at the house of Maulvi Abdul Aziz, a prayer leader, when he woke up in the early hours and lit up a matchstick. He didn’t know that the home was filled with gas.

The family had forgotten to switch off gas heaters before going to sleep as there was load-shedding in the area, but the supply was restored sometime at night.

Police officers and volunteers of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) rushed to the site and launched a rescue operation.

“We have found six bodies and four injured under the wreckage,” a senior PDMA official told Dawn, adding that the house was destroyed in the powerful explosion. All victims were shifted to the Civil Hospital in Quetta.

Hospital officials confirmed that six bodies and four injured were brought to the hospital.

The people killed have been identified as Bibi Tahira, 35; Zarmina, 27; Bibi Tanzeela, 7; Bibi Hasiba, 10; Hamad Allah, 8; and Ibadullah, 3.

The injured included Maulana Aziz, his sons Siddiqullah and Imdadullah, and his six-year-old grandson Muhammad Ghazali. Two of the wounded were in critical condition.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023