RAWALPINDI, March 10: At least six people were injured in a gas explosion in a photo state shop here on Wednesday, witnesses and police officials told Dawn. The explosion occurred at a photo state and ice-cream shop in Lalkurti, a thickly populated cantonment locality, on Mamoojee Road near Tasveer Mahal Cinema at around 6.40pm.

A worker of the shop, William Ayub, in his statement to the police said the gas connection of the shop had been snapped sometime back and the owner of the shop, Masood Pasha, had been using an illegal connection, which had developed leakage.

"I had informed the owner that there was leakage, which needed immediate repair, but he overlooked," he told the police. Both Ayub and Pasha have been injured. Ayub has received 20 per cent burn injuries.

The district police officer, Syed Moravat Shah, briefing the journalists at the site of the incident, said it appeared that the gas had leaked above the false ceiling of the shop and when some body ignited matchstick in the shop, it caught fire resulting in the explosion.

The roof and a wall of the shop had been damaged and the ceiling blown away. Pieces of glass from the shop's front were spread all over the road. The explosion was so strong that it damaged the fronts of a couple of shops across the roads as well. Windshields of some of the cars parked outside were also broken.