LAYYAH, April 11: Three shops were gutted and many others partially damaged when a fire broke out during refilling of gas cylinder at a shop in Jalal Market situated in a densely-populated area of Chowk Azam, about 25 kilometres from here, on Wednesday noon.

According to eyewitnesses, a cigarette caused the fire when gas dealer Muhammad Husain was refilling a cylinder. This caused an explosion which caused fire to break out. The flames engulfed the shops nearby within minutes as a result of which three shops were gutted and at least eight partially damaged.

This created panic among the people in the market and a woman suffered serious burns as she was trapped in a shop. She was shifted to the district headquarters hospital from where she was referred to the Nishter Hospital Multan.

An employ of TMA, Muhammad Iqbal who was busy in firefighting inhaled gas and fell unconscious and also suffered burns. He was admitted to the DHQ hospital where his condition was stated to be stable.

Chowk Azam city has a population of around 100,000 and has no fire fighting arrangements. According to Qazi Asadullah, a local trader, the fire was not extinguished even three hours after the incident and the fire brigade of TMA Layyah arrived after two hours of the eruption of fire.

This is the second incident of fire eruption in this locality within two weeks. To register protest, shopkeepers and residents blocked Mian Wali Multan Road traffic for two hours. They raised slogans against District Nazim Malik Ghulam Haider Thind, Tehsil Nazim Malik Iftikhar Ahmed Jhakhar and local MPA Chaudhry Asgher Ali Gujar.