News

Lahore update

PAKISTAN

UPDATE: 

Gross irregularities and blatant violations by the buildings owners have been discovered, after a high-level inquiry conducted by the government of Punjab was carried out on the February plant explosion that revealed no boiler as was initially stated. 

M/s Orient Labs (Pvt.) Ltd which operated in a 3-story building in a residential area on Multan Road, Lahore manufactured veterinary medicines and most notably injections when the huge explosion in the factory took place. The incident resulted in the collapse of the whole three-story building, killing 25 and injuring 17 workers by the last count.

Initially, it was reported that a boiler blast caused the explosion. There was however no boiler found in the factory and the most probable cause found by the inquiry committee was leakage of LPG gas during the holidays from cylinders stored on the ground floor of the factory.
 

Continuing on from our report last week, it has emerged that more bodies and survivors were pulled out from the wreckage of the collapsed pharmaceutical factory located in a residential area on the main Multan Road. this recent revelation brings the death toll to 22.

The three-storey factory that manufactured veterinary medicines caved in after a boiler and gas cylinder exploded at the premises earlier on Monday. Rescue workers rushed to the scene and started a rescue operation, which is still in progress after more than 60 hours.
Dr Ahmed told Pakistan Today that they had recovered two more bodies overnight which included a 50-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, while 30-years-old Ghulam Abbas succumbed to his injuries in Jinnah Hospital. So far 22 bodies had been retrieved from the rubble. The dead included five men, children and 17 women. He said rescue workers had managed to pull out 16 people alive including seven women and nine men.

He continued that rescue workers were trying their best to recover a maximum number of survivors. 

A plan is reportedly already in place to relocate factories established in residential areas out of city, to prevent tragedies such as the Multan Road factory collapse from happening again.

Footage from the rescue efforts can be seen here