Till date, Shimla has witnessed major fires which had damaged several majestic British-era buildings or collapsed houses, particularly the old dilapidated or unsafe buildings but on Tuesday a blast at an eatery next to busy Mall road has baffled the citizens and the police alike.
One person named Avinash Sood, a restaurant owner at middle bazar died while 13 others injured, five of them are in critical condition.
The blast ripped apart half a dozen shops, eateries and even a leading jewellery show room.
“The spot of the incident was ‘Himachali rasaoi’, a popular place for serving ethnic food and ‘Himachali dham,’ traditional cuisines,” said Shimla’s Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Gandhi.
The blast had such an impact in the middle bazar and Mall road that people ran for safety in panic even as two other eateries and show-rooms on the first and second floor suffered damage. The doors broke apart and ceilings crashed down burying down several people.
“Initial investigations revealed that the incident took place due to LPG Gas Leak. The forensic experts visited the spot.”
“The team has given opinion about LPG leak as cause of the blast”, said Shimla SP.
A case has been registered under section 336, 337 and 304A IPC and investigation is in progress.
Ironically, the eating joint was just adjacent to the fire brigade office on Mall road in the heart of Shimla and immediate effort was made to prevent the adjoining business establishments from catching fire even as the injured were shifted to the Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital.
“The intensity of the blast was such that window panes of several shops and houses in the vicinity were broken and the sound was heard miles away. As the spot is just a few metres away from the fire station and the police control room, a firefight operation was launched swiftly”, Gandhi confirmed.