Pakistan building collapse kills 18 (Agencies) Updated: 2005-05-03 16:01
Gas cylinders exploded in the basement of an apartment building as residents
were asleep early Tuesday, causing the three-story structure to collapse. At
least 18 people were killed and 20 injured.
A dozen others were feared trapped under the debris, police chief Aftab
Cheema said.
Pakistani rescue workers search the dead
bodies at the site of a collapsed three story building in Lahore, Pakistan
on Tuesday, May 3, 2005. Eighteen people were killed and several
others wounded when gas cylinders stored in basement of a building
exploded in eastern Pakistan, causing the structure to collapse, police
said. [AP] | Survivors said the building's owner
ignored repeated requests to remove the cylinders.
"We always feared that it would happen one day," said Sardar Ahmed, 34, who
was sleeping on the second floor at the time.
The owner, a retired academic, could not be reached for comment.
The dead included eight people from the same family, Cheema said. He said
police do not know yet what caused the cylinders to explode.
A wounded survivor is taken from the wreckage
of three-story building, which collapsed, Tuesday, May 3, 2005. in Lahore,
Pakistan. Eighteen people were killed and several others wounded when gas
cylinders stored in basement of a building exploded in eastern Pakistan,
causing the structure to collapse, police said.
[AP] | Three or four nearby homes were damaged, as
were several cars.
Mohammed Afzal, the official in charge of the rescue operation, said the
blast happened around 3 a.m. and was heard around Lahore, the main city in
eastern Pakistan.
"We have been told that dozens of people were inside the building at the time
of the blast. We are trying to save as many people as possible," he said.
Pakistani rescue workers remove a body after a
blast in Lahore May 3, 2005. At least 18 people were killed and about a
dozen injured in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday when three
buildings collapsed after gas cylinders exploded, police and witnesses
said.[Reuters] | As well as low-scale apartments, the building housed a small ice cream
factory whose 12 to 15 workers usually slept on the front lawn but had stayed
inside last night because of heavy rain.
"First I heard a big explosion, and then saw the roof falling. I don't know
what happened next, but when I opened my eyes, I was on a hospital bed," said
one of the workers, Munib Ahmad, 25, recovering at Lahore's Jinnah
Hospital.
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