The Health and Safety Authority has started an investigation into an explosion at a gas bottling plant in Cork yesterday in which two men were injured.
The explosion at the Irish Oxygen Company plant at Waterfall on the southwest outskirts of Cork city happened at about 11.15am.
An oxygen cylinder exploded and two men suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries and were removed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.
The men, who are both from Cork and aged in their 20s and 40s, are understood to have suffered blast-type injuries to their faces.
There were up to six people working in the plant at the time. The explosion which blew off part of the roof of the factory was heard over a mile away in Bishopstown and a major emergency plan was launched.
Firefighters were concerned that material from the asbestos roof had become airborne and a cordon was set up around the damaged factory building.
Local elderly residents were evacuated as a precautionary measure.