HARIPUR: A teenage girl died while her parents and two siblings suffered burn injuries in an early morning gas cylinder blast in a semi-urban locality of Haripur city, police and hospital sources said here on Thursday.

The cause of the accident was a cylinder blast that damaged the room partially, area people and police told journalists. Police and rescue sources quoted the neighbours as saying that Saeed Yousuf, 45, a resident of village Aalim, was a rickshaw driver and preparing to drop his children to school.

He made several attempts to start his LPG-powered rickshaw but failed. He thought that the gas might have frozen in the cylinder. The rickshaw driver, according to police and area people, tried to unfreeze the gas by putting the LPG cylinder on burning gas stove and after a few minutes the cylinder, that was purportedly leaking, burst with a bang and the room caught fire engulfing the belongings and the entire family.

The area people launched a rescue operation and put out the fire but Saeed Yousuf, his wife Naeed, 44, their daughters Abeeha Saeed 15, Manahil Saeed 17, son Yaseen Saeed 12 were severely burnt.

They were referred to Trauma Centre but due to absence of burns unit they were later shifted to Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad, where one of the injured identified as Abeeha Saeed succumbed to injuries while the other family members were admitted for treatment.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2025