At least 148 people were killed and over 100 others injured in an oil tanker fire in East Pakistan’s Punjab province on Sunday morning.
The incident happened when large crowds of people gathered at a capsized oil tanker site to collect the spilled oil on a national highway in Ahmad Pur Shaqia, a sub-district under Bahawalpur, which lies about 400 km southwest of Lahore, the capital of Punjab.
According to the local media, the fully filled tanker, carrying 40,000 litre of oil, turned turtle due to burst tires while rounding a sharp bend in the road. The fire broke out after the crowds from nearby villages arrived in motorbikes for the oil, said, eyewitnesses.
Local police said initial investigation suggested that the fire was ignited after someone on the spot-lit a cigarette.
“I lived just on the other side of the road. I came here after I went to church. Suddenly I heard loud explosive sounds, seeing the oil tanker burning out. All the motorbikes and people were on fire. Bodies can be seen everywhere, around over one hundred,” said Asif Babar, a local resident.
“The oil tanker was capsized and the oil spilled out from it. Many people shouted ‘Oil! Oil! Oil!’ Some took buckets and other containers to collect the oil. The local traffic police arrived at the site and asked people to go away from the site and warned it may explode. But they didn’t follow the words. Suddenly, the fire broke out and over one hundred people were on fire,” said Ali Chan, a local resident.
Through two hours’ efforts, firefighters put out the fire and blocked part of roads and moved all the bodies away.
Due to the lack of doctors and facilities for burn injuries in local hospitals, some of the injured were admitted by a military hospital and two hospitals in the nearby cities. The government was considering to airlift the injured to hospitals in Lahore.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently on a private trip overseas, expressed shock and deep sorrows over the tragedy and instructed relevant departments to give the best possible medical treatment to the injured people.
The military also instructed the army to participate in the rescue work, with military helicopters employed
