Blast at bank in Karachi kills 15, injures at least 16
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KARACHI • At least 15 people were killed and 16 others injured in an explosion last Saturday at a bank branch in Karachi's industrial area, police said.
A senior police officer said the blast at a branch of Habib Bank, Pakistan's largest lender, could have been caused by a gas leak.
Mr Sarfaraz Nawaz also told reporters that the building appeared to have been constructed over a sewage drain.
"Our explosives teams are at work trying to ascertain the nature of the blast, but apparently the structure was constructed on a drain and gas could be a probable cause," he said.
In a statement on Twitter, Habib Bank said an explosion had damaged its branch and caused casualties and injuries.
"Our sympathies are with the bereaved families," it added.
A petrol station located next to the bank within the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate and cars parked nearby were also badly damaged.
Television footage showed the bank's floor ripped apart, exposing twisted iron bars.
"So far 15 people have died and 16 were brought injured to hospital," Karachi's administrator Murtaza Wahab said in a tweet.
Another senior police officer, Mr Sharjeel Kharal, told reporters that the bank had a skeleton crew on duty last Saturday.
OpIndia, a news and current affairs website, citing a security guard of the bank, reported that some locals took the opportunity to steal cash from among the debris and even unearthed the iron safe of the bank from the rubble to smuggle it out of the site.
"A man told me that he saw two bundles of 5,000 rupee notes in the hands of one person," the security guard said. 5,000 rupees is about S$38.
The guard noted too that he received a few bags of bank notes from some people after the blast.
REUTERS
