LAHORE: Twenty-two people were injured, four of them critically, in twin LPG cylinder blasts in the kitchen of a multinational food chain restaurant at Mustafa Town, Wahdat Road, on Tuesday.

A Rescue 1122 spokesman said the explosion took place in the kitchen of an upcoming branch of a fast food chain around 4pm and a fire erupted after the twin blasts.

Rescue fire-fighters and Edhi ambulances reached McDonalds branch and put in efforts to extinguish the blaze which also engulfed the adjacent China Sale Point. The rescue fire-fighters pulled out the trapped people and took them to Jinnah Hospital, where four of them were said to be critical.

The injured include workers of the food chain company and the adjacent sale point. Among them were Sanwal, Amjad, Afzal, Zulfiqar, Ibrar, Arif, Ayub, Wazir, Saleem Wahab, Muzaffar, Arsalan Shakil, Sohail, Akram, Nadeem, Abuzar, Shabbir, Shahbaz, Majid, Munir and Rafiq.

The fire brigade used water cannons to put out the flames and save the adjacent buildings. Huge clouds of smoke were billowing out from the accident site.

Saddar Division SP (Operations) Rizwan Gondal said two gas cylinders exploded in the kitchen of a newly-established fast food outlet branch and it caught fire. He said the fire spread to the adjacent sale point on Wahadat Road and engulfed it devouring valuables such as crockery, cloth and shoes worth millions.

He said the company was using cylinders in the kitchen and had also applied for the gas connection. He said the kitchen workers might have done something wrong and it resulted in explosion of two cylinders. He said they were investigating to know the exact cause of fire.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2016