Kabul, Feb 9: At least eight people were killed when a gas cylinder exploded inside a residential home in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, the city’s governor’s office said in a statement on Saturday evening.According to the statement, the incident occurred in Police District 21 when a family was using a gas heater to warm their home during cold winter weather. The cylinder exploded due to a gas leak, resulting in the fatalities, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Most households in Afghanistan, which lack widespread modern heating infrastructure, rely on gas cylinders or traditional stoves to heat their homes during harsh winters. Such accidents, often caused by gas leaks and explosions, are a recurring hazard in the impoverished country.
On February 5, three people, all women from the same family, were killed and another was injured after a gas cylinder exploded inside a house in eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province on Thursday evening, provincial police spokesman Tahir Ehrar said.
The ill-fated family was using a gas heater to warm their house in the chilly winter weather, but the cylinder of the heater exploded due to gas leakage, causing the fatalities, the official added.
A male member of the affected family who was badly injured has been taken to the hospital, the official added.
Several weeks ago, a gas cylinder blast left two women dead and injured two children in Spin Ghar district of eastern Nangarhar province.
Earlier on January 14, over a dozen employees were injured as a gas cylinder blasted due to gas leakage inside a hotel in the eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, said a provincial police statement.
The incident occurred inside the hotel in Batikot district on January 14, injuring 14 employees of the hotel, with some in critical condition, the statement added.