RAWALPINDI, Jan 17: Fourteen schoolchildren, their teacher and a family of four suffered severe burn injuries when leaking gas caught fire at their places on Thursday, police and hospital sources said.

Rescue 1122 service and neighbours rushed the victims from the Federal Government Middle School in Gawalmandi and a house in Qasimabad Mohallah to nearby hospitals where they were stated to be in “stable condition”.

In a late night move the City police arrested the principal of the school, Chaudhry Maqsood, after registering a case of negligence against him.

Seven of the fifth class schoolchildren who had their faces and necks burnt were shifted from the District Headquarters Hospital to the Holy Family Hospital.

All hell broke out when Ehsan, the school’s sweeper, put a match to the gas heater fixed on a wall. “There was a big explosion and the classroom was engulfed by fire,” recounted a student, Omer Farooq.

With their clothes on fire, the children and their teacher Malik Nawaz ran out of the inferno. Their screams and the sirens of the ambulances called to the scene spread panic and brought worried parents there soon.

Witnesses said some parents chased the ambulances to the hospital where they poured over the list of casualties and peeped into emergency rooms.

Those who did not find their children there were told to look into the arriving ambulances.

Police and rescuers said a bigger tragedy was prevented as less students had turned up at school because it was raining in the morning. A small ventilator in the classroom also saved the day for the small children.

“If all the leaking gas had accumulated in the room, the explosion would have blown off its roof,” observed Ms Deeba of the rescue team.

She said the upturned furniture and burnt schoolbags, books and lunch boxes strewn in the classroom presented a scene as if a hurricane had passed through it.

Principal Chaudhry Maqsood was quoted as saying that he had visited the classroom at around 7:45am and had found nothing wrong. The gas explosion occurred some 30 minutes later.

Dr Irfan Khilji, who treated the burn victims, told Dawn that the schoolchildren had sustained 15 to 22 per cent burns.

The gas explosion and fire in the house in Qasimabad occurred when Zahida Bibi, wife of Ijaz, lighted the gas stove to prepare breakfast. She, her brother Khurram Shahzad and her two daughters Sonia and Ayesha were trapped in the flames.

Their screams brought neighbours to their rescue who rushed them to the Rawalpindi General Hospital where they were said to be in stable condition.