JOIN USPolice said the blast occurred at about 5.30 am at the house of Shabbir, 38, and Shakir, 30, from Kerala. The brothers came to Bangalore a few months ago and ran a bakery at Chikkatugur. They had rented a place right in front of the bakery.
On Thursday night, the brothers forgot to turn off the regulator before going to sleep.
It is suspected that there was leakage in the pipe and when Shabbir switched on the light in the kitchen in the morning, the cylinder exploded with a deafening noise.
The impact of the blast was such that the house came crashing down, damaging four more houses adjacent to it. The two brothers and their neighbour Puttamma, 70, were among the injured in the tragedy. All of them have been admitted to a nearby hospital and their condition is said to be critical.
The blast shook the entire area, which made the residents suspect it was a terrorist attack. Personnel from the Fire and Emergency Services rummaged through the debris of the collapsed building looking for people who may have been trapped under the building, but found none.
Saturday’s incident is the second major cylinder blast in the recent past. About a month back, a marriage hall caved in after a cylinder blast, killing a girl and injuring ten others at Sumanahalli near Magadi Road.