DOHUK, Iraq — Five people died and 40 were injured when a gas tank exploded and
sparked a fire in a student dormitory in northern
Iraq, authorities said
Tuesday.
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The blast hit
Monday night when a rooftop gas tank leaked at a building housing the student
accommodation and a bakery in the Kurdish city of Dohuk.
“The gas leaked,
reaching the students’ rooms, and police arrived to evacuate them,” Dohuk’s
governor, Ali Tatar, told AFP. “Unfortunately at that moment, the explosion
occurred.”
A student, a
bakery worker and three policemen who arrived as part of the emergency response
were killed, including the unit’s deputy director, Tatar said.
It was the second
explosion of a liquefied petroleum gas tank in Iraqi Kurdistan in less than a
week.
Last Thursday, 15
people died in Sulaimaniyah when an LPG tank exploded and caused the collapse
of a building.
Following Monday’s
deaths, authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region announced a ban on
LPG tanks for domestic use.
The
Dohuk blast
was the latest tragedy to highlight Iraq’s dilapidated infrastructure and lax
safety standards.
On November 15 and
17, two fires broke out at Baghdad International Airport. And in late October
at least nine people were killed when a gas tanker exploded in Baghdad.
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