5 persons die in 2 separate incidents of cylinder blast

A cylinder blast inside a residential colony in Kailash Nagar area of Gandhi Nagar in East Delhi left two people dead and four others injured. 

The deceased have been identified as Poonam while another victim’s identity is yet to be known. 

Another major cylinder blast was reported from a building near Ashram in which at least three people have died and 22 are said to be injured.  

Senior officers of Delhi Police, fire and disaster management have been pressed into service. 

“We have shifted the injured to Safdargunj Hospital and other nearby hospitals. The number of deaths may increase,” said B S Jaglan, District Magistrate of South East Delhi from the spot.  

According to officers of the Delhi fire service, they received a call at 8.30 pm about the cylinder blast. Since it was a multi-storeyed building with offices, small hotels and residential apartments, more people came in the ambit of fire, he added. According to locals due to the high temperature, the fire spread so fast that people living on the upper floors jumped to save their lives and got injured in the process. 

In the first case, according to the police, the incident took place at around 9 pm in an advocate’s house in Gandhi Nagar area when a cylinder exploded in the kitchen of a residence.

More than 12 fire tenders had rushed to the spot to carry out the rescue operations till the filing of this report.

Police said that the injured in the cylinder blast have been identified as Sonu Kashyap (60), Krish (12), Girish (6) and Naina (4). According to the police, all of them have been admitted to a nearby hospital where two died while the others are undergoing treatment. 

Eyewitnesses and locals told the cops that the cylinder blast was so big that the entire lane was filled with smoke and electricity of the nearby houses were disconnected in order to carry out the rescue operations.