Child dies in gas cylinder explosion during Chhath in Bihar

Vaishali (Central Bihar), Nov 17 (UNI) A five-year-old girl was killed and eight persons were injured, some of them critically, when a gas cyclinder exploded near a Chhath festival congregation at Chamrahara area in the district today.

Police said the mishap occurred when a gas-balloon vendor was filling gas from a cylinder and it exploded near the congregation, killing the child on the spot and injuring eight persons.

The spot was adjacent to a pool, where several people were offering obeisance to the rising sun on the concluding day of the three-day Chhath festival.

The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital. However, as the condition of five of them deteriorated, they were later shifted to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).

Meanwhile, in another incident, a boy drowned in a pond at the Rajapakhar area, also in Vaishali district, while bathing this morning, police added.

His body was later fished out and sent for post-mortem.

UNI