Building collapses in Mukundpur after cylinder blast

A preliminary probe suggested that the blast allegedly took place during the illegal refilling of smaller gas cylinders, officials from the fire and police departments said, with a total of 38 empty gas cylinders recovered from the incident site and 46 more — 25 domestic and 21 commercial — recovered from a room in a nearby building.

“However, our investigations are still to ascertain the exact reason behind the cylinder blast,” said deputy commissioner of police (outer-north) Hareshwar Swami.

Police and local residents said the building was being used for running multiple illegal commercial activities, including transferring cooking gas into small cylinders from bigger ones, coating of utensils, production and packaging of spices, and manufacturing of mobile chargers.