Yesterday, an explosion injured 13 people in popular South Jakarta mall Gandaria City. The police immediately ruled out that it was caused by a bomb, and instead suspected that the explosion was caused by a gas pipe leak.
Gandaria City management today confirmed that to be the case and gave their version of what happened.
“At around 9am, a security guard smelled gas coming from an empty room near a restaurant,” said Gandaria City Director Martin Marpaung, as quoted by Okezone.
The security guard then notified the mall’s management, who sent technicians to check out a possible gas leak. At 9:50 am, they found the source of the leak in what was supposed to be a storage area.
“It turned out a gas pipe was open. At the same time, a worker nearby was cutting iron, which caused sparks and, combined with the gas, caused the fire,” Martin said.
Martin added that, as per the agreement with the construction contractors, there was to be no construction work in the storage room, which happened to contain the gas leak. As such, they have reported the contractors to the authorities.
13 people reportedly sustained burn injuries of varying degrees from the explosion yesterday, and were all taken to the Pertamina Central Hospital. Three of them have reportedly been discharged.
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