Yesterday's  pre-dawn explosion that destroyed a major section of the Empire Shopping Gallery in Subang Jaya was caused by gas leak, Housing and Local Government Minister Chor Chee Hiong confirmed today.

Speaking to media after visiting the site in SS17, Subang Jaya this afternoon, Chor said the gas leak originated from a restaurant on the ground floor, which he identified as LG32.

The year-old shopping complex, he said, was equipped with a central gas piping system, which needed to be checked by the Energy Commission once every two years.

NONE "The piping is connected to every restaurant, and if there is a leakage, it will explode if there is a spark," said Chor who was accompanied in his visit by Selangor Fire and Rescue Department and Energy Commission officials.

"It is quite unfortunate that this explosion has happened in less than two years," he added.

Earlier, Bernama reported that the Fire and Rescue Department has prepared a preliminary report on the explosion.

Report to be released tomorrow

Announcing this after opening a roundtable discussion on 'Cities and climate change' in conjunction with World Habitat Day 2011 in Putrajaya this morning, Chor said the report would be released tomorrow.

The shopping centre has been closed temporarily until further notice.

NONE The loud explosion at 3.45am was believed to have been caused by leaking gas in one of the premises on the basement of the shopping complex.

Chor has also directed the department to study the safety aspect as a whole before any building is issued with the certificate of fitness (CF) for occupation.

In his speech earlier, the minister said the Peninsular Malaysia Urban and Rural Development Department was preparing guidelines to encourage the planning of green townships.

The guidelines would assist the government in achieving its target of reducing carbon intensity and could be used to assess the level of carbon in a particular town through the Low Carbon Cities Assessment Framework.

Chor said this was important because 65 percent of Malaysia's population resided in towns and suburban areas.

'Leak caused by tenant's negligence'

An industrial source later told Malaysiakini  that the leak was caused by  negligence of the shop tenant as the central piping system was working properly.

NONE She also claimed that the tenant is aware of the mistake.

Meanwhile, Chor was coy when asked whether or not the authorities will instruct the shopping complex to replace its central piping system.

He said it is hard to point fingers at certain  individual as the system was fine when it was installed.

“But when somebody touched it and caused a leak, it is hard to blame anyone,” he said.

On a side note, debris at the mall’s entrance  has been cleared and tenants from the upper floors have been allowed to enter their shops  in the aftermath of the shocking blast that injured four.

Mammoth DH Empire Holdings marketing director Thang Han Ni said upper floors tenants can go in with the supervision of two security guards.

“Whereas for ground floor and lower ground floor tenants, they simply can’t go in because there is a lot of debris,” she said.

She added that the issue of compensation has yet to be sorted out, but tenants were given briefings about the entire incident.

The Empire Hotel, she said, will resume operations once the electricity supply is back.