RAWALPINDI, April 21: At least nine people were killed and 15 others injured when a two-storey commercial building on the Murree Road collapsed after a huge gas cylinder explosion followed by a fire which gutted the entire structure on Wednesday. A late night APP report put the death toll at 10.

According to doctors, the death toll could rise as two of the injured were in critical condition. A nephew of a local politician (MPA) and parliamentary secretary was among the dead.

Civil Defence Officials and bomb disposal experts said in their reports that a welding work was in progress in Raja Nasir's shop in the building when gas started leaking from a cylinder which caused the huge explosion followed by a fire.

Witnesses said it was around 10.35am when the explosion occurred in a corner shop of the building which quickly caught fire and the entire two-storey structure came down with a bang. Several people who had been inside the building and the pedestrians were trapped in the collapsing rubble. At least six cars and two motorbikes parked in front of Naseer Plaza were also damaged.

Witnesses said a motorbike rider who was passing in front of the building on the Murree Road was tossed into the air by the impact of the blast. Window-panes of nearby buildings were also shattered. Grief and anger gripped the city as the news of heavy casualties spread.

Besides rescue teams, top police and district management officials who had been with Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool during his visit to Rawalpindi at the time, rushed to the scene. Governor Maqbool directed the rescuers to first get the injured people out of the rubble of the building.

Hundreds of people who had gathered around the debris of the building surged towards the governor to apprise him about the incident. Fire fighting engines, heavy cranes and dumpers were called out at the scene. Ambulances wailing sirens started shifting the injured and dead to hospitals. The fire was immediately controlled by fire fighters.