The Sindh government has ordered a crackdown on all illegal filling stations in Hyderabad following a cylinder blast that killed four and wounded 52 in the city.

“The immediate action will be that tomorrow (Friday) we will shut down all cylinder stations in Hyderabad and other areas,” Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told reporters on Thursday after visiting the Burns Centre at the Civil Hospital in Karachi where some of the wounded are under treatment.

“They [store owners] also have a livelihood, but nothing is more important than life,” he said and added that the civil defence, district administration, and police have been directed to check it.

According to updates by 1:36am, 51 patients were injured and two out of them succumbed to their injuries. At least 27 out of them were sent to Karachi and some of them patients had 70% burn injuries and nine had 100% burn injuries.

The severely injured from the cylinder explosion were shifted to the Civil Hospital while nine of the patients were admitted to the Patel Hospital.

The Sindh chief minister expressed grief over the loss of precious lives. He lamented that standard practice was not followed on how to fill gas cylinders and mentioned that the province did not have much gas utility.

The incident occurred as a result of a cylinder exploded in an LPG shop located in a three-story building on Zacha Khana Road, Preetabad, a densely populated area in Hyderabad.

The initial explosion caused other cylinders in the shop to explode as well, resulting in multiple blasts. The injured were shifted to a civil hospital by local people, Rescue 1122 and Edhi ambulances while fire brigade vehicles also reached the spot immediately.