A powerful gas explosion in a sewage system in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi has killed at least 10 people and injured 13 others, according to officials.

Sabir Memon, a doctor at the Trauma Center in Karachi, said at least three people among those injured in Saturday’s incident were in a critical condition and several had been sent to the intensive care unit.

Police spokesman Sohail Jokhio said the explosion was likely caused by accumulated gas in the sewer beneath a bank building in the city’s Shershah neighbourhood.

Windows were shattered in nearby buildings, while parked cars and motorcycles were also badly damaged.

Jokhio said it was not yet clear what ignited the gas, but a team of explosives experts had been summoned to investigate.

“Investigation is going on to ascertain the cause of the blast & necessary treatment is being provided to the injured,” Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab said in a Twitter post.

Many sewage channels in Karachi have been covered, mostly illegally, by constructing concrete structures over them.

Karachi, which is responsible for 60 percent of Pakistan’s economic output, has long endured creaky infrastructure, unregulated construction and failing municipal services.

Source: Al Jazeera

BDST: 1824 HRS, DEC 18, 2021
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