Beef noodle restaurant explosion in Taiwan's Miaoli City
台灣苗栗市牛肉麵店氣爆
| Four people injured during gas explosion on first floor of street-level noodle restaurant
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A gas explosion at a beef noodle shop in Miaoli City at 10:18 a.m. on Saturday (June 3) seriously injured three people and also a woman across the street selling sweet potatoes. The explosion came from a gas cylinder, and debris, including shards of glass, covered the street and even adjacent businesses. The restaurant, located on Tianyun Street, exploded for unknown reasons, causing a chaotic scene as nearby residents were frightened by the loud noise. According to BCC, when the police arrived at the scene, it was confirmed that a gas explosion had occurred and that no open flames were burning. Central News Agency (CNA) reported a Miaoli County firefighter as saying he was dispatched by the command center in the morning and arrived at the scene to find three people burned and scalded outside the restaurant, including the owner. Individuals associated with the beef noodle restaurant and the sweet potato vendor were all sent to the hospital for treatment. The gas explosion reportedly occurred when the restaurant was busy preparing lunch. A nearby resident said they heard a loud, scary noise in the morning, thinking it was potentially a thunderstorm at first. But when they walked out of the house, they saw that the beef noodle shop was in disarray. Seeing this emergency situation, nearby residents rushed to help the injured, providing water to cool down their burns and accompanying them until an ambulance arrived on the scene. A neighbor across the street, Huang Lien-chin (黃連進) of the Zenan Homeless Social Welfare Foundation, said the blast caused debris to spread to surrounding stores, causing glass in shop fronts to be shattered. Fortunately, it was not meal time; otherwise, a larger crowd would have assembled at the restaurant, and the consequences would have been even more disastrous. |
|
| Sean Scanlan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2023-06-04 |
