ISLAMABAD: At least 18 people, including eight children, were killed and 28 others injured on Wednesday night after a passenger bus caught fire in Pakistan’s southern Jamshoro district, police said on Thursday.
The area’s Deputy Superintendent of Police Wajid Thaheem was quoted by Xinhua as telling the media that the bus was engulfed in flames when it reached the Nooriabad area of Jamshoror district of Sindh province.
According to the police, the initial investigation revealed that the fire erupted due to the vehicle’s malfunctioning air conditioning system.
The passenger bus was on its way from the port city of Karachi to the Khairpur Nathan Shah area of the Dadu district of the province when it encountered the fatal incident.
Police, rescue teams and firefighters rushed to the site, helped put off the fire, and shifted the bodies and the injured to the Liaquat University Hospital in Jamshoro.
The police official added that nine women and eight children were among the deceased.
The hospital officials feared that the death toll might rise because several of the injured were severely burned and were in critical condition.
There were 55 passengers on board who belonged to the same village located in the Khairpur Nathan Shah area. – BERNAMA
