Gas leak and short circuit behind two deadly Bengaluru tragedies, say police: Report

Bengaluru's top cop confirmed that a gas leak caused a deadly blast, killing three including two children, while an electrical short circuit killed five others.

Bengaluru’s top cop, Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh, confirmed on Tuesday that two separate deadly incidents in the city over the past week were triggered by entirely different causes - one by a gas leak and the other by an electrical short circuit.

As many as 8 have lost lives in Bengaluru in two separate incidents - an LPG cylinder explosion and an electrical short circuit which led to a massive fire. (Unsplash - representational image)

The first tragedy occurred on the morning of August 15 in Chinnayyanapalya, Adugodi, where a powerful blast inside a residence claimed the lives of three people, including two children. According to Singh, the explosion was caused by a cooking gas leak, The Times of India reported.

Investigators recovered an empty LPG cylinder from the house of A. Kasturi, who had reportedly received the cylinder just two days earlier. "It was intact and emptied when we recovered it from the place of occurrence. It all indicates the gas leaked completely," he said, as quoted in the publication.

A senior officer involved in the investigation noted a chilling detail: the explosion occurred just after a 9-year-old victim switched on the television. She and her 25-year-old mother, Kasturi, succumbed to severe burn injuries later on Monday, while eight-year-old Mubarak died on the day of the blast. Preliminary findings suggest gas had seeped into the house overnight and the electrical spark from the TV was enough to ignite the accumulated fumes.

Authorities are currently questioning the gas delivery personnel to check for any defects or lapses in safety protocol regarding the cylinder, the report stated.

In a separate incident at Thigalarpet on Saturday, five people lost their lives in a blaze that swept through a multi-storey commercial building in the early morning hours. This time, an electrical short circuit has been identified as the cause. Police have arrested the building owners as part of the ongoing investigation.