RAWALPINDI, Feb 16: A labourer was killed and five other persons were injured when a projectile, hit by the labourer while he was digging earth at a shop in the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, exploded on Friday evening.

Witnesses believed the projectile was a leftover from the huge arsenal that blew up at nearby Ojhri Camp in April 1988.

District Police Officer Saud Aziz said it was a 7-inch long projectile buried under the bag-stitching shop of Malik Sohail Awan who was getting its basement expanded.

Two of the five people injured by the explosion were stated to be in critical condition and the legs of another had to be amputated.

The shop owner was among the injured.

Ambulances and fire engines were rushed to the scene of blast in the bustling Food Street which was caught in a bedlam.

The powerful blast shook the whole area and was heard miles away.

It tore off the front of Awan’s shop, damaged a car parked at a nearby showroom and shattered the glass of the media box in the cricket stadium.

“I was working in a shop when the explosion occurred. There was panic everywhere and the injured were screaming for help,” said injured Jabran Raza from his hospital bed.

The injured were identified as Ahsan Nawaz, 25, Jabran Raza, 17, Malik Sohail Awan, 45, Abdul Aziz, 35, and Hamaad Yasir.