Balloon seller killed, 7 children hurt in Amritsar cylinder blast
TRAGEDY AT FAIR Kids were queuing up to buy balloons; state govt to pay treatment cost
AMRITSAR : A 60-year-old balloon seller Satnam Singh was killed and eight people, including seven children, were injured when the gas cylinder he was carrying on his moped burst at Ghanupur Kale village, Chheharta, in Amritsar, on Saturday about 3.30pm.
Satnam, of Guru Nanak Pura village, was selling gas balloons at the annual fair of Baba Darshan Singh held in the village along the national highway 1. Gurpreet Singh, 13, was injured on his right leg; Ekampreet Singh, 5, (forehead); Lovepreet Singh, 13, (right leg was severed from body); Akashdeep Singh, 14, (right thigh); Jashandeep Singh, 10, (left leg); Amritpal Singh, 8 (face, eyes and left leg) and Sneha, 6, (left leg). A vegetable seller, also named Satnam Singh, 32, received eye injuries.
As the blast left behind a trail of blood and chaos, village residents rushed the children and the injured man to the Arora Hospital on the Chheharta road.
Four of the children, who were critical, were shifted to Amandeep Hospital near the railway station, the police said.
Mandeep Kaur, the mother of Jashandeep, 10, said, “My son was waiting for his turn to buy a balloon, when the cylinder burst.”
Chheharta SHO Harish Behal said, “Satnam’s body has been sent to the civil hospital for postmortem. We have filed proceedings under Section 174 (police to inquire and report on death) of the CRPC.”
Amritsar (West) MLA and spokesperson of Punjab Congress Raj Kumar Verka visited the injured in hospital.
He announced that the government would bear the expenses on the treatment of the injured.
“We will provide financial aid as per rules,” he added.