HANGU, Oct 24: Five members of a family were killed and three others were injured in an explosion in a house here on Tuesday afternoon. The family members who were killed included a woman and four girls.

They were identified as Irshad Bibi, 46, and her daughters Shirin Bibi, 19; Gulshan Bibi, 11; Haseena Bibi, 10, and Saima, 6.

The names of the injured are Yasmeen Bibi, 24, Qamer Bibi, 18, and Ali Mohammad, 9. They have been taken to Peshawar for medical treatment.

The cause of the explosion could not be ascertained but the local police claimed that a gas cylinder had exploded in a room situated on the first floor of the residence at Mohallah Saidan.

Officials of the bomb disposal squad came from Peshawar and had been examining the spot in the evening. An official said that he could not confirm the reason for the blast at this stage.

Witnesses told Dawn that they heard a big bang after which they rushed to the site where they found eight family members lying in a pool of blood.

The family head, Haji Jan Mohammad, was out of his house when the explosion occurred.

“We strongly believe that it was not a bomb blast and some cylinder had exploded in the room,” said the SHO of the Hangu police station, Saeed Khan.

Witnesses claimed that they had seen signs of shrapnel in the room and there were no remains of a cylinder in the room.