CYLINDER BLAST TRIGGERS HOUSE COLLAPSE IN UTTAR PRADESH; 13 DEAD, 18 INJURED
MAU The explosion brought down one house and damaged 2 others
VARANASI: Thirteen people were killed and 18 others injured on Monday after a cylinder blast in a kitchen brought down one house and damaged two others in a congested locality in Walidpur town in Uttar Pradesh’s Mau district.
Police said while seven people were killed on the spot, six others succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
A police officer familiar with the matter said that the cylinder exploded, probably due to a gas leak, while a woman was preparing tea in her house in Bichalapur colony.
“The impact of the blast was so huge that the entire house collapsed, and several people got trapped under the debris,” said deputy inspector general of police (DIG), Azamgarh range, Manoj Tiwari. Tiwari, who led the rescue operation, said apart from the house where the blast occurred, two other houses in the vicinity suffered extensive damage.
The deceased include six men, identified as Kanhaiya, Bhim, Bhrigu, Chhotu, three women, two teenaged boys and two children below the age of 10. They belong to five different families.
Police said the incident happened when Mona Vishwakarma (18), a resident of Bichalapur colony, turned on the gas cylinder which was leaking to prepare tea, causing the blast. Her mother Rita Vishwakarma and four sisters are among the injured.
“The blast was caused by leakage of cooking gas from the cylinder,” said Mau district’s chief fire officer Subhash Kumar Chaudhary, adding that a probe will reveal the exact cause of the gas leak.
Chaudhary said several of the deceased were people who ran towards the house after the blast, and got trapped under the rubble after the building collapsed.
Neeraj Kumar, a local resident, said he heard a loud explosion at 6.40 am, after which flames erupted from the house.
The building where the blast occured was over 60 years old, a local said. The locality is in the mid of the town and mostly resides wood craftsmen, while the women make incense sticks.
While the police were the first respondents at the spot, a team each of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force joined the rescue operation. NDRF rescuers, along with a dog squad, conducted thorough search at the spot till no other person was trapped, the DIG said.
A police officer involved in the rescue operation said five of the victims were killed by burn injuries suffered in the blast, while the others died because they got trapped.“The injured were rushed to the district hospital in Mau... doctors referred 10 to the trauma centre in Azamgarh. Two of the injured were discharged,” Tiwari said.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief and directed the district officials to ensure proper treatment to the injured.