RAWALPINDI, Jan 27: An explosion in a fireworks store located in the residential area of Ganjmandi on Sunday left at least five people dead and eight injured, police and rescue services said.

The explosion occurred at 10:30am in the fireworks warehouse located in the ground floor of a three-storey building which caught fire and then collapsed.

Earlier, the city police officer had put the number of those killed at eight, but as the rubble was removed it emerged that the death toll was five with eight injured.

The injured including a woman identified as Rubina, 35, and her son Hassan Jehangir alias Sunny, 14, were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital. Later, three of the injured were removed to the Holy Family Hospital’s burn unit, where one of them was stated to be in critical condition.

Ziarat Gul, 38, one of the injured told Dawn from the hospital bed that he was loading goods on a truck when the explosion occurred.

“I do not know what exactly happened but when I regained consciousness I found myself on the hospital bed,” he said.

The deceased included Mir Zada, 35, and Shah Rawan, 20, while the injured were Ezat Mand, 35; Ziarat Gul, 38; Mastan Shah, 40; Alam Zeb, 40; Bakht Meer, 42 and Far Zaman, 45.

The store had been hired by one Jaffar Khan from the owner of the building Raja Bashir. Police said Jaffar was being interrogated. Several other warehouses located in the neighbourhood were damaged, some reduced to rubble. A pickup van parked outside the building was also damaged by the flying debris.

The blast which was heard miles away sent concrete blocks and bricks flying and human body parts scattered around the area. On hearing the sound of the blast, a large number of people from the neighbourhood rushed to the scene.

City Police Officer (CPO) Saud Aziz told Dawn that some daily wage employees were offloading a truck at the storehouse when the explosion occurred.

He said the exact cause of the blast was still unclear whether the godown caught fire due to gas leakage or short-circuiting. He said a case would be registered against the owner of the warehouse, Jaffar Khan, while the station house officer of Ganjmandi has been charge-sheeted for his failure to check such activities in his jurisdiction.

Rescue 1122 team and the local police arrived at the scene of the explosion and started rescue operation that continued even after sunset. Search efforts by the rescuers for more bodies and causes of the explosion continued till night.

Moving scenes were witnessed at the DHQ hospital where the victims were brought. The relatives of the victims were checking the lists of the causalities pasted on the wall of the hospital.

The residents wanted to know why the authorities had allowed setting up of the fireworks warehouse in the middle of a residential area.