KARACHI: At least three people were killed and several others critically wounded in a blast at a gas station in Karachi that occurred during the unloading of cylinders, leading to the collapse of a two-story residential building, officials said on Monday.

Such accidents are common in Karachi, a city of nearly 15 million and the country's commercial capital, where numerous gas filing stations have been established in small shops in residential areas with no safety rules in place. 

"Gas cylinders brought in a Suzuki pick-up were being unloaded at the filing station inside a shop when one cylinder burst, causing a chain reaction with other cylinders also detonating," Senior Superintendent of Police Arif Aslam Rao told media, adding that police were investigating the incident which took place in the city's Machar Colony.

"The resulting blast led to the collapse of the two-story building beneath which the shop was situated."

Karachi police surgeon Dr. Summiya Syed confirmed three bodies were brought from the blast site and the death toll might increase as four people were in critical condition.

“Three fatalities and twenty injuries were transported to the Civil Hospital. Among the twenty, six individuals suffered burns, and among them, four are in extremely critical condition,” Syed said. 

“Given the frequent occurrence of such blasts, a counter-terrorism department team inspected the site. In the initial investigation, we did not find any evidence of terrorism, but a clearer picture will emerge once the lab reports are available,” Raja Umar Khattab, a senior counterterrorism officer, said.

The blast comes less than two weeks after two deadly shopping mall fires in Karachi. 

Pakistan’s largest city is home to hundreds of thousands of industrial units and some of the tallest buildings in the South Asian country.

But despite its magnitude, the city has only 22 fire stations, a little over a dozen functional fire tenders, few snorkels, and slightly more than a thousand firefighters — woefully inadequate for a megapolis that witnesses hundreds of fire incidents annually.

In April, four firefighters died and nearly a dozen others were injured after a fire broke out in a garment factory, while 10 people were killed in a massive fire at a chemical factory in the city in August 2021.

In the deadliest such incident, 260 people were killed in 2012 after being trapped inside a garment factory when a fire broke out.