Six children among dead in Pakistan road accident
Gas tanker and bus collide in Sheikhupura, causing fireball that kills at least 10 people, including children.
At least 10 people, including six schoolchildren, were killed in a fireball after a tanker carrying liquified petroleum gas collided with a car in eastern Pakistan, officials said.
The accident, which injured at least another 17 people, happened on a busy highway in the district of Sheikhupura in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province on Wednesday.
“According to initial information, a car was making a u-turn and struck the tanker,” Latif Gujjar, a senior local police official, told the AFP news agency.
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Local rescue official Muhammad Azam said two cars, two rickshaws that were carrying children to school, and two motorbikes had been destroyed. The bodies of the dead were badly charred.
“The loss of life was mainly caused by the tanker fire,” he added.
Heavy fog that descends upon central and northern Pakistan in winter is a leading cause of road accidents.
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Pakistan has an appalling record of fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
More than 4,600 people were killed in road traffic accidents in 2013, the last year the government released official data.