Gas-filled balloons explode inside Mumbai lift, injuring delivery worker and student
The student had just arrived in Mumbai to visit a relative when the balloons were being delivered for a birthday celebration in the same building.
Closed-circuit television footage showed the moment gas-filled balloons exploded inside a lift at Anmol Tower in Goregaon, Mumbai, injuring a woman and a delivery worker. (Images: X/Deadlykalesh)
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A young woman was injured after gas-filled balloons carried by a delivery worker blew up inside a lift in a suburb in India.
The incident, which happened on Monday (Feb 2) at around 10.30pm, was captured on closed-circuit television at the Anmol Tower in Goregaon, Mumbai.
The Times of India reported that 21-year-old student Himani Tapriya sustained burns on her arm, neck and abdomen. The police said that she received medical help and is now out of danger.
Ms Tapriya, who had just arrived in Mumbai from her hometown of Surat in Gujarat to visit her aunt, told the police that the balloons suddenly exploded inside the lift before the doors closed.
The footage, which has since been going viral online, shows her wheeling a luggage into a lift and a male delivery worker following after her, carrying several balloons packed in a large plastic bag.
As a third person enters the lift, the balloons suddenly explode and a fireball engulfs the space.
As the flames wane, the three people are seen rushing out of the lift, with the worker, 32-year-old Raju Kumar Mahato, tumbling to the ground. He suffered burn injuries as well.
It was reported that he was carrying around 10 to 12 gas-filled balloons ordered by a building resident for a birthday celebration.
They are believed to be filled with hydrogen gas.
Unlike helium, which is an inert gas, hydrogen is known to be highly flammable and it ignites easily with a small spark or static discharge.
The police in Goregaon have filed a case against the balloon seller, shop owner TK Jaiswal.
A few months back, hydrogen balloons exploded at a couple's pre-wedding ceremony in Delhi and they suffered burns, India's English-language daily Deccan Chronicle reported. The incident went viral online last November after the couple posted about it on Instagram.
As the bride and groom were walking outdoors, holding a bunch of large hydrogen balloons, friends and family set off coloured smoke guns around them. The heat from the guns reacted with the balloons, triggering a small blast.
On Feb 14 last year, a woman in Hanoi, Vietnam suffered burns when balloons exploded while she posed with a birthday cake. They came into contact with the candles on the cake, burst into flames and burned her face.
She later learnt that the balloons were filled with hydrogen gas, the Hindustan Times reported. She said that the seller did not warn her about this risk, likely due to the high demand for balloons on Valentine's Day.
