Chennai: Five people, including two aged women were killed and 12 others sustained burns and injuries in a LPG cooking cylinder blast at Karungalpatti village in Salem district of Tamilnadu on Tuesday.
The impact of the explosion was such that three adjacent housesĀ in the narrow street were razed to the ground.
Reports received at the police headquarters here said the deceasedĀ were identified as Rajeswari (80), house owner Padmanabhan, who is a Fire Officer, his wife Devi, Karthik Ram (18) and Ellammal.
Rajeswari lit the gas stove at around 0645 hrs for preparing tea when the blast occurred with a deafening sound following a gas leak.
Rajeswarai, who sustained extensive burns, died on the spot. Police and fire service personnel rushed to the spot and rescued 12 people, including a ten-year-old girl, who were trapped under the rubble and shifted them to Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College hospital for treatment where the condition of three of them were said to be serious.
After a nearly eight hour long rescue operations carried out by theĀ police and fire service personnel, revenue officials and a teamĀ from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the bodies ofĀ Padmanabhan, Devi, Karthik Ram and Ellammal were recoveredĀ from the debris.
Salem District Collector S.Karmegham, Corporation CommissionerĀ T. Christuraj and ruling DMK MLA R. Rajendran visited the spot andĀ monitored the rescue and relief works.