Cylinder Explosion Kills Five in Bhagalpur

Bhagalpur: Oct. 7, 2008

Five persons including three children perished at a house in Bhagalpur on Tuesday night when a cooking gas cylinder somehow exploded blowing up the house in pieces while also seriously injuring three others, officials in Bhagalpur said.

According to the reports, the accident occurred at around 9:00 pm at the home of Vishnudeo Thakur in Ramsar area under Tatarpur police station.

While Thakur and the 10-year old girl Arti died on the spot, daughter-in-law Kiran Devi, 3-year old Satyam, and 18-months old Shivam succumbed to their injuries at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, the police said.

The intensity of the explosion was so strong that the body of Arti was thrown away six houses down the road while the reverberation was felt as far away as two kilometers, eyewitnesses said.

Meanwhile, Ajay Thakur, Gorelal, and Chanda Devi continue to battle for their lives at the hospital.

The house owned by Bhagwat Das was literally leveled leaving only pile of rubble caused by the blast.

Senior police officials including DSP Ali Ansari and police captain Kundan Krishnan, along with about half a dozen police station chiefs rushed to the site to measure the extent of the devastation.

Based on the preliminary investigation, it appeared the explosion was caused by the bursting of the cooking gas cylinder; Ansari said though some in the neighborhood said it could be the result of a bomb explosion.

A high-level probe has been instituted in the case, the police said.

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