'With clothes on fire, youth ran out of auto yelling for help'

Subash Shetty, who runs a vegetable shop at Nagori, saw a youth with his clothes on fire running out of the autorickshaw, yelling for help seconds after the blast.

“The passenger, with his clothes on fire, leapt out of the smoke-filled autorickshaw and started running. Though he was wearing two shirts, he had suffered burn injuries. Finally, we doused the fire and without bothering to know about his whereabouts, we rushed him to the nearest hospital in another autorickshaw,” Shetty, narrating the incident, told reporters.

Subash Shetty told media persons that initially, he suspected that the LPG kit in the auto would have triggered the fire. “But on seeing the cooker and circuits I suspected something amiss and contacted Kankanady police,” he said.

Ram Prasad Shetty, a resident and an eyewitness to the low-intensity blast, said he first heard the sound of a huge cracker burst and the next moment he noticed an autorickshaw engulfed in thick smoke. A youth in his twenties jumped out of the autorickshaw shouting for help.