A portion of a pavement caved in today in front of the main gate of Stephen House on Hemanta Basu Sarani following an explosion believed to have been caused by the bursting of electric cables. The incident occurred at around 5.45 p.m. today. No casualties were reported. A crater measuring about 150 square feet in area and four feet in depth was created.
A large police contingent rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. Senior officers from Lalbazar including Mr Murlidhar Sharma, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime)went to the spot. Bomb squad personnel and sniffer dogs from Kolkata Police were pressed into service. Police suspect the explosion was caused by the bursting of underground electric cables.No one is reported to have sustained any injury in the incident. A senior police officer said, “Had it been a working day, there would have been many casualties.”
A local shop-owner said, “I heard the sound of an explosion and ran out to see what had happened. I saw a large number of police officers at the area. It is very fortunate that no one was injured.” Mr Sharma said:“So far, we have not found any trace of explosives. We presume that the explosion took place in the electric cables that were lying underground.” He added that there was a drop in the voltage around BBD Bag and Lalbazar area before the explosion took place.
“As we came here, we got the distinct smell of burnt cable from the spot,” Mr Sharma added. CESC officials are reported to have said that the explosion did not occur due to any fault in electric cables as that would have cut off the power supply in the entire area. Forensic teams along with CESC officials have collected samples to ascertain the exact cause of the blast.