Top manager of Vasl Sanoat Ltd Umed Tilloyev and three employees of this company – Rajabali Boboyev, Abdullobek Qurbonaliyev and Rustamjon Samadov – have been detained for violation of safety regulations that has led to a liquefied gas blast in the sewerage system.

According to the Interior Ministry’s website, Vasl Sanoat Ltd got an order from Hilton Dushanbe Hotel to clean a 25-ton liquefied gas storage tank. 

The company employees reportedly poured the remnants of liquefied gas into the sewerage system.  Torrential rain caused an electrical malfunction in underground electrical cables that, in turn, caused explosion of the liquefied gas poured into the sewerage system.

Six persons sustained slight burns and were taken to burn treatment hospital No 3, the press center says.  The accident reportedly took place Saturday evening (May 18) at 6:00 pm.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted under the provisions of three articles of Tajikistan’s Penal and if convicted the detainees could face up to five years in prison.