Karachi(PTI): At least 12 people were killed and an equal number injured here on Saturday when a massive blast, apparently triggered by a gas explosion in a sewage system, ripped through the premises of a private bank situated on it, according to media reports.
Most of the casualties are reportedly customers and staff present inside the bank which was built on top of a covered sewage channel in Karachi's Shershah area and collapsed following the explosion, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Officials said that the cause of the explosion is being investigated as it cannot be ascertained whether it was a gas pipeline or a build-up of methane that took place inside the sewage system which led to the explosion.
"It might be a sewer gas blast as the bank was constructed on a nullah. It is too early to say whether it was a gas line or a sewer explosion. We are investigating," a senior police official was quoted as saying in the report.
According to a report in Geo TV, eyewitnesses claim that there are many people who are buried underneath the debris of the building.
Two excavators have been called to the site to remove the debris and rescue any persons trapped there.
A bomb disposal unit (BDU) has also arrived at the location which has been cordoned off, the Geo TV report said.
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Dehradun (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a roadshow in Dehradun on Tuesday, with a large crowd lining both sides of the road to greet him.
The prime minister is in the city to inaugurate the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway.
Before the roadshow, he stopped to pray at the Siddhpeeth Maa Datkali Temple near Dehradun on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
He then embarked on a 12-kilometre road trip to the main event venue, Jaswant Ground, in Dehradun.
A large number of people, including school children, gathered to welcome the prime minister and showered flowers on his convoy.
A massive police force was deployed for security during the prime minister's movement.
Modi will inaugurate the Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor, which will cut the travel time between the two cities to less than half. He will also undertake a review of the wildlife passage on the elevated section of the high-speed expressway in Saharanpur.
The 213-kilometre six-lane access-controlled corridor has been built at a cost of over Rs 12,000 crore.
The corridor traverses through the states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, and will reduce travel time between Delhi and Dehradun from over six hours at present to around two and a half hours, according to an official statement.
