The Terengganu Health Department has expressed regret over the explosion of balloons at its recent event.

Its director Dr Mohamad Omar said the department had placed a temporary ban on the use of balloons at all its official events, pending further instructions from the Health Ministry.

He said the department had set up an internal inquiry committee to investigate the incident.

He was speaking to reporters when visiting 10 victims - injured in the balloon explosion - at the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital in Kuala Terengganu.

In the incident during the World Sight Day celebrations organised by the department last Friday in Dataran Batu Burok, some 150 balloons meant for distribution to children after the event had exploded.

This caused seven victims to be warded at the hospital with burns, while 24 others received outpatient treatment.

Yesterday, however, three of the 24 outpatients returned for an examination and were admitted at the hospital.

Of the total, six patients are being treated in the burns unit, three in the plastic surgery ward and a nine-year-old child who suffered 18 percent burns was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Meanwhile, Mohamad said investigations into the incident would entail what gas was used to fill the balloons as reports indicated it was most likely not helium. 

- Bernama