QUETTA: Six people were killed and two others injured in a gas leak explosion and a drowning incid­ent on Wednesday.

The blast took place in­­side a house at Achakzai Co­­­lony in Quetta during Se­­hri. Police said natural gas was accumulated in the house of Shafiullah due to a leak and when his wife tried to light the gas heater an explosion occur­red. The house caught fire in no time, leaving the man and two of his children dead.

“The powerful blast and the fire destroyed the hou­se,” a senior officer of Air­p­ort Police Station said, ad­­d­­­ing that bodies and the in­­jured were shifted to Bolan Medical College Hos­pital. The bodies were han­ded over to the family after medico-legal formalities.

In the other incident, a man and his two children drowned in a dam in the Saraghargai area on the outskirts of Quetta city.

Police said three members of a nomadic family — a man, his son and his dau­ghter — went to the Sa­­ra­gh­argai area to pick dry firewood for their home when the eight-year-old boy slip­ped into the dam.

The father jumped into the dam to save his son, but he also drowned in deep waters. The 12-year-old girl seeing the situation also tried to rescue her father and brother but she too lost her life.

Police rushed to the site along with divers who fished out the three bodies after two hours of hectic efforts. The bodies were taken to the civil hospital before being handed over to the family. The names of the deceased could not be ascertained till late evening.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2024