JEDDAH, 19 March 2005 — Three Saudis were injured in a fire caused by a gas cylinder explosion in a three-story building in Al-Nuzha district in north Jeddah.
The blast also destroyed glasses of the building’s windows and door.
The explosion had terrified residents of the building as well as people in the neighborhood as they thought it was a terrorist attack.
Jalal Abdul Qader, a Sudanese resident of the building, said the blast occurred in the evening. “I am living above the flat which was gutted by the blast,” he said.
The fire service and special security forces rushed to the area and extinguished the fire within half an hour. The injured were taken to nearest hospitals.
Abdul Qader said air conditioners were blown off the building as a result of the blast.
Adel Al-Mehdar and Tareq Sagheer, residents of the nearest building, said they feared it was a terrorist attack “because the blast was forceful. Thank God it was not a terrorist attack,” they said.
It took hours for residents of the building for having recovered from the shock and enter their flats.
