Official and eyewitness reports said a scrap dealer Shamshuddin Lalman Sheikh (35) was attempting to dismantle the compressor of a discarded cooler in his shop in Shirin building, Modi Street, when it exploded all of a sudden, dismembering the palm of his left hand. Two passers-by also received injuries on their legs and shoulders. They were probably hit by flying splinters, police informed.

The three were rushed to St George's Hospital, where one of the doctors attending to Sheikh said his left palm had been blown off by the impact of the blast, and his right hand had also been seriously injured.

``I'm dead, I'm dead,'' cried Sheikh when he was being shifted to the casualty ward of the hospital.

According to a local resident, Aslam, the blast took place at around 4.20 pm, when he was standing in the bylaneadjoining Modi street. ``There was a violent and deafening sound from Modi street, and when I rushed to see what was happening, I found Sheikh lying in a pool of blood, his left palm blown off,'' he said, adding that though neighbours tried to locate Sheikh's palm, it couldn't be traced.

Mohammed Salim, one of the other two injured, said: ``I was passing in front of the scrap shop, when there was a loud sound, and something struck my limbs. When I touched my feet, I found blood oozing from both my legs.''

Mohammed Sahid's case wasn't different. He too was walking past the shop, when the blast took him by surprise, injuring his right shoulder and his legs. Sheikh's neighbours said he had owned the scrap shop for the last 11-12 years, and he stayed in the same building.

Senior inspector V B Phad of MRA police station, under whose jurisdiction the incident took place, has ruled out the possibility of a bomb blast. He said preliminary investigations have revealed there was residual gas in the chambers ofthe compressor when it was being dismantled. Ignition of the gas must have caused the blast, he pointed out.