Gas leak to blame for blast in Lahore

Police at first said it was a bomb that left seven dead

An explosion that killed seven people and caused panic in the Pakistani city on Thursday was caused by a gas leak and not a bomb as police had stated, officials said yesterday.

Dozens of people were injured in a provincial capital on edge after a suicide attack 10 days before killed 14 people.

Police and administration officials had earlier stated that the explosion in an affluent area of the eastern city, which blew out windows and destroyed cars, was a bomb.

In Lahore yesterday, they revised their assessment.

“Yesterday’s explosion was an accident. It was not caused by explosives or terrorism,” Punjab provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah said.

“The presence of gas cylinders and leakage has been confirmed on the site. We got the forensic report this morning and the conclusions are that there was no indication of explosives.”

Debris had kept the forensics team from accessing the site, he said, while analysis took up to eight hours.

He also said the blast had killed seven people, not eight as officials had at first stated.

Thursday’s explosion sent panic through Lahore, where reports of a second blast were quickly debunked.

Most schools and restaurants were closed yesterday.

The organisers of the Lahore Literary Festival, the country’s biggest, said it had been scaled back from three days this weekend to one.

The incident spread panic through social media, where users exchanged warnings purporting to be from intelligence agencies. The military denied issuing the messages. The rumours underscored nervousness after assaults that claimed more than 100 lives shook Pakistan in the past two weeks.