KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — Total chaos erupted after an explosion occurred at HELP University in Bukit Damansara this morning.
A female witness, 24, who spoke to Bernama, described harrowing scenes of chaos and panic in the moments immediately after the explosion in the university’s cafeteria today, relating how she saw a woman trapped by a piece of the wooden ceiling board that fell on top of her.
“When I was escaping, I saw a female student in the cafeteria trapped under a ceiling board, and she was unable to move. I also saw someone else in the kitchen area who was scalded due to the blast,” she told the media at the site of the explosion.
The witness, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was unable to determine the condition of the victims and could not help them as she was in a state of panic.
“The safety alarm in the vicinity of the explosion had sounded, so I only focused on saving myself,” she said, adding that she was lucky to escape unhurt.
A university employee, who declined to be named, said the campus had only one cafeteria used by both staff and students.
“Most of the area in the building (hit by the explosion) houses university management offices, several classrooms and the cafeteria. During the incident, I was on another block and did not hear the blast, maybe because the distance was too great,” they said.
Checks by Bernama at the location found vehicles from the police, the Fire and Rescue Department, and the Occupational Health and Safety Department entering the area, with several university security guards on the scene to control it, while the building block had been cordoned off by the authorities.
The police had earlier announced that a 24-year-old man who worked for the air conditioning contractor company had died while being treated at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital, while nine others were injured.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Fadil Marsus said the explosion is believed to have occurred in the air-conditioner maintenance area next to the cafeteria.
