Karnataka gas cylinder blast: Death toll reaches 8

Specialist doctors from Bengaluru had visited the KMC-RI, offering guidance for treatment. The government had announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the kins of the deceased.

Hubballi: The death toll of the LPG explosion at Ayyappaswamy Sannidhana at Sainagar in Hubballi reached eight on Tuesday, with Prakash Barker (42) breathing his last at the Karnataka Medical College and Research Institute (KMC-RI).

Prakash was a resident of Acchavvana Colony at Sainagar, the area where the mishap took place in the early hours of December 23, in which a total of nine Ayyappaswamy devotees were injured.

Before Prakash, Shankar Chavan (29), Manjunath Waghmore (22), Lingaraj Biranur (19), Raju Mugeri (16) Sanjay Savadatti (17), Nijalingappa Bepuri (58) and Tejeshwar Satri (26) had succumbed to burn injuries in last one week.

All these eight persons were in critical condition. Specialist doctors from Bengaluru had also visited the KMC-RI, offering guidance for treatment. The government had announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the kins of the deceased.

Prakash with 90-95 per cent burns with severe inhalation injury was declared dead on Tuesday morning. His 12-year-old son Vinayak is stable and doing well, doctors said.