A truck laden with gas cylinders caught fire and the cylinders exploded near Kandikhal village on the Gadolia-Srinagar motorway on Thursday morning. The truck was gutted completely and a series of explosions were heard in the area. However, the driver managed to step out of the truck in the nick of time and saved his life. By the time the fire brigade reached the spot, the truck was reduced to ashes.
The loud explosion near Kandikhal village at around 6 am on Thursday triggered panic among the people. When they reached the spot, the truck was found ablaze. Fortunately, there was no human settlement in the neighbourhood of the explosion site.
Police sub-inspector Jitendra Kumar, who reached the spot, said that the truck driver Rajesh Saini, resident of a village under Farakpur police station limit in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, was going to Ghansali via Devprayag with a truck loaded with 288 gas cylinders.
The explosion was so huge that the splinters of the cylinders were found scattered half a kilometer away. Columns of thick black smoke kept billowing out in the area several hours after the explosion took place. The vehicular movement remained stalled on the road for a few hours.
