FAISALABAD, April 3: Explosive experts and officials of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) have failed to ascertain the cause of the Mansoorabad blast on Wednesday that claimed 13 lives.

Sources told Dawn on Thursday that District Coordination Officer Azam Sulman had invited Ogra officials and explosive experts from Islamabad to determine the reason for the cylinder blast. These officials were shown the cylinder, but they expressed their inability in this regard.

A source privy to the meeting said Ogra officials were of the view that they only knew about the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) instead of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Explosive experts also responded in negative.

“Now the City District Government of Faisalabad (CDGF) has decided to send the cylinder to the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (PCSIR) laboratory. The civil defence officials will send it soon,” he said.

DCO Azam Suleman told Dawn the meeting with Ogra officials and explosive experts remained inconclusive. He said: “We can’t say anything till the laboratory report.”

He said oxygen supply factories would also be examined, and the CDGF as well as police force had been instructed to the effect.

The DCO said the CDGF would approach the provincial government for the payment of compensation to heirs of the victims and the injured ones.

Thirteen people were killed and 29 others injured when a two-storey building on Jhumra Road collapsed after explosion of a gas cylinder.

Of the injured, 23 were discharged from the Allied and DHQ hospitals. Hospital sources said the remaining six injured would be discharged in a couple of days.