Three dead, 11 hurt in gas explosion in Istanbul

Blast in a workplace in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu district killed three people on Saturday



Three bodies have been removed from the wreckage of a building following a gas explosion in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul.The Governor of the largest city in Turkey, Hüseyin Avni Mutlu, said the blast earlier on Saturday, in the ground floor premises of a four-storey building, was linked to a domestic gas supply.Eleven people, including a firefighter, were injured in the explosion.Firefighters are checking the building and an investigation is under way.Workshop explosionMeanwhile, official gas supplier IGDAS said there were no natural gas facilities in the area of the explosion, so the blast could not have been caused by "gas compression".In a separate incident on Friday, one person died and 36 were injured in a gas explosion at a bakery in the city of Denizli, southwestern Turkey, the disaster management agency said.A similar explosion took place in an unlicensed firework workshop in Zeytinburnu in 2008, causing 21 deaths.