Hyderabad cylinder blast death toll soars to 7

KARACHI: Death toll of the Hyderabad cylinder explosion incident is likely to rise as one more wounded person succumbed to injuries at Karachi's Civil Hospital on Friday while nine others are in critical condition.

“Death toll of Hyderabad cylinder blast incident rises to 7 as one more injured dies today,” the government hospital’s administration told Geo News, adding that nine more victims are in critical condition.

A massive explosion at a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder refilling shop occurred on Thursday, leaving dozens of people wounded, including children and women in Hyderabad’s Paretabad area.

The casualty rate was high due to fire which affected a large number of citizens after the dangerous explosion at the LPG shop.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leaders, during a press conference in Hyderabad today, condemned the grave negligence of the local administration.

MQM-P’s Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Syed Waseem Hussain said that there is a negligence of “our own people” which led to the Paretabad incident.

Waseem blamed the local administration for closing a fire station in the Paretabad area with a population of over 600,000, whereas, six out of 11 firefighting vehicles were non-functional.

He demanded the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Hyderabad Mayor Kashif Shoro.

Another MQM-P leader Nasir Qureshi alleged that the Hyderabad administration paid no heed to his party's calls to address the issue which could result in such incidents.

When people moved towards the shop to put out the fire after the first blast at 6pm, another loud explosion took place, which engulfed the shop in flames and started another fire in some adjacent houses and shops in the densely populated area of the city.

As a result of the fires, 51 people suffered burns and were shifted to the Civil Hospital Hyderabad and Combined Military Hospital in ambulances.

The blaze was extinguished after the arrival of fire brigade vehicles from Rescue 1122 and other towns.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, the chief secretary and the provincial police chief took notice of the incident and sought reports from the deputy commissioner, deputy inspector general and senior superintendent police.