18 killed as building collapses in gas cylinder blast

Eighteen people were killed and 20 more wounded when gas cylinders stored in the basement of a building exploded in eastern Pakistan early today, causing the structure to collapse, police said.

About a dozen people were still feared trapped under debris at the three-storey building in Lahore, the city’s police chief Aftab Cheema said.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the blast, which also damaged three or four nearby homes and several vehicles, he said.

“I confirm that 18 people were killed in this incident and 20 were injured. The bodies and injured have been transported to a hospital,” he said. Some of the injured were in critical condition.

He said the dead included eight people from the same family, who were sleeping in an apartment on the building’s second storey.

Mohammed Afzal, the official in charge of the rescue operation, said the blast happened at about 11pm Irish time on Monday and was heard around Lahore, the main city in eastern Pakistan.

“We have been told that dozens of people were inside the building at the time of the blast. We are trying to save as many people as possible,” he said.

He expected it would take another four hours to clear the debris.

As well as low-scale apartments, the building housed a small ice cream factory whose 12 to 15 workers usually slept on the front lawn but had stayed inside last night because of heavy rain.

“First I heard a big explosion, and then saw the roof falling. I don’t know what happened next, but when I opened my eyes, I was on a hospital bed,” said one of the workers, Munib Ahmad, 25, recovering at Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital.

Other survivors at the hospital said the building owner had ignored repeated requests to move the gas cylinders that were stored in the basement.

“We always feared that it would happen one day,” said Sardar Ahmed, 34, who was sleeping on the second floor when the blast occurred. “He never paid any attention to our requests.”