6 Killed In Cylinder Explosion; 3-Year-Old Escapes Death, Trapped In Rubble For 5 Hours

Bengaluru: A three-year-old girl escaped death after cooking cylinder exploded in a residential building at Ejipura locality here in the city in the early hours of Monday. The infant, who was trapped in the debris for five hours, was rescued by the NDRF team and police personnel. The baby was immediately shifted to a nearby hospital where her condition is stated to normal.

As many as six people have been killed and three were severely injured when the 20-year-old two-storyed building collapsed due to the impact of the explosion of cylinder in the ground floor. The deceased have been identified as Kalavati (69), Hari Prasad (19), Ravi Chandra (48), Pavan Kalyan (18), Ashwinin (Pregnant) and Saravana.

According to the locals, the blast occurred around 7 am. Fire brigade and the NDRF personnel swung into action and retrieved the bodies trapped in the rubble.

Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy visited the accident spot and reviewed the rescue operations. The state government announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured in the mishap. The police said that the building belonged to one Ganesh. The owner rented the building to four families.

The explosion brought four houses down. The incident happened in the early hours when many were asleep.

An official said that the impact of the explosion was such that two buildings of same storey got collapsed. The houses at Ejipura are congested and many buildings have been constructed illegally situated at narrow bylanes.

A similar incident happened on August, when a cylinder blast happened in Ejipura damaging properties.