A building collapsed following an explosion that caused by a gas leak in a drain in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Saturday. At least 15 people died and 16 were injured because of the collapse. The blast event occurred at 1:40 pm local time, leading to the collapse of a bank building in the Shershah area.
A senior police officer said the blast at a branch of Habib Bank Ltd, Pakistan’s largest lender, could have been caused by a gas leak. Sarfaraz Nawaz also told reporters that the building appeared to have been constructed over a sewage drain.
“Our explosives teams are at work trying to ascertain the nature of the blast, but apparently the structure was constructed on a drain and gas could be a probable cause,” he said.
In a statement on Twitter, Habib Bank said an explosion had damaged its branch and caused casualties and injuries. “Our sympathies are with the bereaved families,” it added.
A petrol station located next to the bank within the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate and cars parked nearby were badly damaged. Television footage showed the bank’s floor ripped apart, exposing twisted iron bars.
“So far 15 people have died and 16 were brought injured to hospital,” Karachi’s administrator Murtaza Wahab said in a tweet.
Another senior police officer, Sharjeel Kharal, told reporters it was not immediately clear how many were dead or injured in the explosion as the bank had a skeleton staff on Saturday.
In October 2020, at least four people were killed and 23 others injured in an explosion at a five-story residential building in Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous city.
In March 2020, at least 24 people died when another building collapsed in the same city, where the authorities have described 150 residential and office buildings as dangerous.
Sources: theguardian.com, abc.net.au, laprensalatina.com
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