A 23-year-old man working at a French multinational IT services company was killed in a gas explosion at a shared accommodation in Bengaluru’s Kundalahalli on Monday. The incident, which occurred at the Seven Hills Sai Co-Living paying guest facility around 6:15 pm, left three others injured.
The explosion took place on the ground floor of the seven-storey building, which has 43 rooms. It is believed that the deceased and the other victims were on the terrace and came down after seeing smoke billowing. The blast went off simultaneously, killing Aravind.
“Among the injured, two are employees of private companies, and one works as a helper at the PG,” K Parashurama, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield), was quoted as saying by NDTV.
An emergency team was immediately rushed to the scene to contain the raging fire. Police have registered a case. Preliminary investigation suggests that a commercial-grade gas cylinder was involved in the blast, though the exact cause of ignition is yet to be determined, police told news agency PTI.
“We are examining the building for violations. We have already noticed that there was no setback provided during construction, and we are verifying whether other rules were also defied,” Parashurama said.
Aravind, a native of Ballari in Karnataka and a senior analyst with Capgemini, was killed in the blast. Three others were injured and identified as Venkatesh (28) from Kurnool, Vishal Verma (23) from Uttarakhand, and CV Goel (25), a woman from Uttarakhand.
All the injured are undergoing treatment at Brookefield Hospital in the city.
The explosion occurred at a paying guest (PG) accommodation—shared or private lodging—owned by Vishnu, a resident of Andhra Pradesh, and locally managed by Roja.
Muzaffarnagar cylinder blast
Meanwhile, three people died, including a 70-year-old woman, and one was injured after a fire caused by cylinders exploded in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, earlier in the day.
Muzaffarnagar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sanjay Kumar, told news agency ANI, “A 70-year-old woman, Sushila Devi, and her two sons, Amit and Nitin, have died after being caught in a fire. This incident occurred around 4:39 PM in Vasundhara Residency, located in the Nai Mandi police station area of Muzaffarnagar. The entire accident happened due to a blast in two cylinders.”
“Police reached within four to five minutes of the incident. Proceedings for the inquest and postmortem are being ensured. Three people have died, and there is news of one person being injured, who is out of danger now,” the police official added.
