It was a day Glasgow will never forget.
Scotland's worst peace-time explosion ripped through a south side precinct on October 21, 1971, devastating residents of all corners of the city and beyond.
A total of 22 people lost their lives in the devastating Clarkston Toll disaster, while more than 100 were left injured by the blast.
The equivalent of a 300 lb bomb going off, the impact was so severe that it reduced a row of shops on Busby Road to nothing more than rubble.
Just days before the tragedy, workers had been complaining about the smell of gas in the air but, despite inspections, no source had been found.
The all-clear was given to the 26 stores on site by gas company experts on the morning of the catastophe.
They had been unable to identify where the leak was coming from, even after digging up the road.
The explosion happened at 2.52pm on the Thursday afternoon, on a dreich day which might have ended up largely forgotten, had the disaster of such ferocious scale not erupted.
Of course, these were the days before social media and 24-hour rolling news and some families of victims had no idea what was going on until they switched on the TV at dinner time to see the carnage unfold before their eyes.
A fleet of 22 ambulances were dispatched to pick up the injured and dead while young nurses wept as they battled beside firefighters and police to save as many lives as they could.
Ambulance man David Wright, then 20, described to the Daily Record during the 40th anniversary year of the shock incident how he saw a mother crumpled on the ground shielding her little girl.
He said: “It was very difficult to work. The screaming and moaning in the background made it hard to concentrate."
The cause of the Clarkston disaster was never identified.
An official inquiry lasted just 19 days and no one was blamed for the ignition of the leaked gas.
The leak itself was deemed the result of an accidental gas main fracture caused by "stress and corrosion".
As the majority of the victims were women, mums out shopping for their families, the compensation paid was minimal.
And it would be more than 30 years later before a memorial was erected at Clarkston Toll.
But for those caught up in the horrific events of that fateful day, and those who bore witness to the horror of what went on, the memories remain as fresh as if they were yesterday.
Article first published on October 21, 2017
