At least 20 flood victims charred to death in Pakistan bus blaze
Islamabad, Oct 13 (EFE).- At least 20 people, including 12 children, died and 18 others were injured when a bus carrying flood survivors caught fire overnight on a highway in the southern Sindh province, the police said Thursday.
A total of 80 people were on the bus, and were returning to their native town of Khairpur Nathan Shah from Karachi, where they had taken shelter after having to evacuate their homes in the flood-ravaged region.
“According to initial information, the AC plant of the bus caught fire at around 10pm which engulfed the whole bus very quickly,” Rajjab Hussain, a police official at the Karachi police headquarters, told EFE.
The official said the travelers were returning to their native town in Dadu district upon receiving information that the water had receded there.
However, he added that floodwater was still present in some of the areas of Khairpur Nathan Shah.
Rescue service Edhi said the injured, mostly adults, had been shifted to hospitals in Hyderabad and Jamshoro for treatment, while many had already been discharged.
“The incident happened at Nooriabad which is 95km (59 miles) away from Karachi last night,” Furqan Ali, an Edhi official in Karachi, told EFE.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has ordered an investigation into the cause of the incident.
“The injured persons should immediately be moved to the hospital and the administration should provide all kinds of support to the families,” he said in a statement.
Road accidents in Pakistan are common owing to poor safety measures and precarious condition of vehicles and roads.
In August, a passenger bus caught fire when it collided with an oil tanker on a high way in southern Punjab, killing 20 people.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority, a total of 1,717 people, including 639 children, have died in the floods while 12,867 others have been injured across the country. EFE
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