Sewer gas explosion kills 10 in southern Pakistan town| Today Headlines

KARACHI, Pakistan – A powerful gas explosion in a sewage system in a city in southern Pakistan left at least 10 dead and 13 injured on Saturday, police and a health official said.

Police spokesman Sohail Jokhio said the explosion was apparently caused when something ignited gas that had accumulated in the sewers under a bank building in the Shershah district of the port city of Karachi.

Jokhio said the cause of the gas was not yet clear, but a team of explosives experts had been summoned to investigate.

Dr Sabir Memon of Trauma Center Karachi said 10 people were killed and 13 others injured, at least three of them in critical condition. He said several injured were sent to the intensive care unit.

Jokhio said windows were smashed in nearby buildings and a vehicle parked nearby was also badly damaged.

Many of the city’s sewer canals have been covered, most of them illegally, by building concrete structures over them.