A serious explosion occurred in a takeaway in the Inner Harbour area yesterday morning, which injured its four employees, three of them seriously, according to the Fire Services Bureau (CB).

Firemen said they suspected that the blast was caused by gas leaking from the takeaway’s LPG cylinders.

The Fire Services Bureau later discovered that a document applying for a licence to run the takeaway by the owner shows that only electric cooking appliances are allowed to be used there. The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) said yesterday afternoon that the eatery had used gas cooking appliances without ever having submitted the required application.

The Chinese name of the takeaway – Ha Bing Hai Jeung in Cantonese – appears to indicate that is specialises in prawn and crab dishes.

According to the firemen, the explosion occurred at around 6:30 a.m. in the ground-floor takeaway in Rua do Dr. Lourenço Pereira Marques – a street in the Inner Harbour area running from near The Riviera Macau residential building to near Praça de Ponte e Horta along the waterfront where various piers are located.

Firemen and paramedics rushed to the scene where they found four injured people outside the takeaway. The four injured – employees of the takeaway – told the firemen that the explosion occurred when they were about to close the door at the end of business hours.

The paramedics provided the four injured with emergency treatment and the firemen quickly extinguished the blaze in the takeaway which was badly gutted by the blast. The four injured – three men and a woman – were rushed to the city’s two hospitals.

According to a statement from the public Conde de Sao Januario Hospital Centre yesterday afternoon, two men – aged 29 and 32 – were taken to the public Conde de S. Januario Hospital Centre, while the other man – aged 37 – and the woman – aged 29 – were taken to the private Kiang Wu Hospital.

Of the two injured at the public hospital, one suffered serious cuts on his head and face and remained hospitalised, while the other suffered second degree burns on his head, face and limbs as well as internal injuries to his lungs, and was in the intensive care unit (ICU) until yesterday afternoon, according to the public hospital’s statement. He remained hospitalised last night.

Of the two injured at Kiang Wu Hospital, the man suffered second degree burns to his legs, a fractured pelvis, internal injuries to his lungs and a cerebral contusion, and remained hospitalised, while the woman suffered slight burns to her legs and was discharged after treatment, according to the statement from the public hospital.

Fire Services Bureau Commissioner Leong Iok Sam went to the scene to check the situation. He told reporters that a provisional investigation showed that the explosion was caused by gas leaking from the takeaway’s LPG cylinders.

Firemen, Judiciary Police (PJ) officers and officials from various other government bodies check the takeaway badly gutted by yesterday’s gas blast in Rua do Dr. Lourenço Pereira Marques in the Inner Harbour area. Photo: Iong Tat Choi