SARGODHA: At least seven persons were killed and 14 others sustained critical burns when LPG cylinder installed in a passenger van with around 20 onboard exploded in Bhalwal, Sargodha district, police said on Saturday.
The police informed that cylinder exploded when the ill-fated van was on the way to Kot Momin from Bhalwal with 21 passengers on board, leaving five dead on the spot.
The police said that the explosion took place due to a gas leak from the LPG cylinder. The vehicle caught fire right after the cylinder’s explosion.
Eyewitness Kot Momin Police Station Head Constable Mohammad Shahid, who was heading to work, said that he was sitting on the front seat of the van when the cylinder exploded around 8:30am.
He said he got out of the van immediately. Then, he broke the middle and the rear doors of the van to take the passengers out as the flames engulfed the entire vehicle.
After the gruesome incident, rescue teams rushed to the spot and started rescue operations to put out the fire in the passenger van.
The injured were shifted to nearby hospitals in Sargodha and Kot Momin.
The rescue-emergency officer said that the condition of one of the injured was critical. He said that the process of identification of the deceased was underway.
CM grieved over loss of lives
Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed a deep sense of sorrow and grief over the loss of human lives due to fire eruption in a passenger van in tehsil Bhalwal of Sargodha.
The CM expressed his heartfelt sympathy and condolence with the heirs of the deceased. He directed to provide best treatment facilities to the injured. He directed Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Sargodha to immediately reach the accident site and investigate the incident.
Separately, nine people including a woman and a child were injured in separate road accidents in different localities of Gujranwala.
Police said that an over speeding car knocked down a motorcycle on GT Road near Ghaniya area critically injuring a woman Tahira Bibi 40, and Jamil 50.
