3 dead, 28 wounded in cylinder blast

KABUL (PAN): Three civilians were killed and 28 others wounded in a gas cylinder explosion inside a busy market in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, the Ministry of Interior said.

The blast, which took place in a medical store in front of Parwan Hotel in the Khairkhana neighbourhood at 12 noon, was followed by a huge fire that gutted six medical stores.

A statement from the ministry said the medical store owners had suffered losses worth millions of dollars. Some vehicles were also partially damaged, it added.

Five of the injured were in critical condition, the 101st Asmayee Police Zone crime branch chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zahir, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Director of Kabul hospitals Dr. Abdul Kabir Amiri said that two dead bodies and 18 wounded people, including three children, had been brought to medical facilities in the capital. Six of the injured were evacuated to the Khairkhana Mena Hospital.

According to the Pajhwok reporter at the scene, the fire was controlled at 1:15pm.

Owners of medical stores suffered losses of millions of afghanis, Pharmacists Association head Abdul Khaliq Zazai said. Nearly 100 drug stores are located in the market.

Rahmatullah, a pharmacist in the 11th police district, said his brother was wounded in the blast that shattered windowpanes of nearby shops. The site was littered with a variety of medicines, he added.

A market guard, Abdul Latif, said: “We rushed to the site soon after the blast. I saw 10 wounded people and we took them out of the market. Police shifted them to hospital.”

myn/mud

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