HYDERABAD: The Karachi's Civil Hospital Sunday said that the death toll from the Hyderabad cylinder explosion has soared to 10 after another injured patient passed away at Burns Ward.
The hospital's administration said that seven victims, out of the 13 injured treated at the hospital, were in critical condition.
Those who died were in the age range of six and 36, while the injured include a minor as young as 4 years old.
On May 30, a massive explosion at a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder refilling shop occurred, 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.
Talking to Geo News, Deputy Commissioner Zainul Abideen Memon said they had shut down LPG shops after the fire incident.
The LPG business owners would have to obtain a no objection certificate and even those having the NOC would not be allowed to run the business in a populated area, the DC said, reacting to the fire incident that claimed at least 10 lives.
“The businessmen will be allowed to establish LPG business on highways far from the city,” he said.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leaders, during a press conference in Hyderabad, condemned the grave negligence of the local administration.
MQM-P’s Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Syed Waseem Hussain said that there was 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.
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.
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