Daijiworld News Network - North Karnataka / Karwar / Mangalore (GA)

Karwar, Mar 6: Three persons from Ullal near Mangalore in the district of Dakshina Kannada have been critically injured in an LPG cylinder blast in the lime-kiln staff quarters at Shirwad near here on Friday March 3.

The injured have been identified as Altaf (24), Latif (28) and Ashraf (24), residents of Ullal near Mangalore.  Along with them one Ashraf (30), a resident of Manjeshwar too has been critically injured in the tragedy.  While the first three have been admitted to Mangala Nursing Home in Mangalore, Ashraf has been admitted to Sahara Nursing Home in Mangalore.  It is said that all of them have sustained 65% to 70% burn injuries in the blast.

The cylinders were illegally stored in the lime-kiln quarters area.  The police have already seized 61 cylinders out of which 4 belong to Hindustan Petroleum (HP) Company while one more belongs to a private company.  The rest of the cylinders do not bear any name since the names have been erased.  The police have also seized some more cylinders thrown in the nearby woods.

The preliminary police investigations have revealed that the blast might have occurred after the said persons filled excess gas in the cylinder as a result of which the gas spread arou

However, the police suspect of a much larger network operating behind the entire racket.  Though the blast had occurred on Friday, police were informed by a unidentified caller on Saturday March 4.  By the time the police reached the place, the injured had already been shifted to hospital.  So it is not yet confirmed as how many have been injured and whether there were any casualties.

No one knows even asto who got the injured admitted to hospitals in Mangalore and how were they shifted from Shirwad so swiftly in the night.

The police have begun investigation in this direction.