Islamabad, Oct 28 (IANS) At least two people lost their lives, and five others sustained critical injuries on Wednesday following a massive explosion caused by a gas bowser colliding with another heavy vehicle in southern Pakistan’s Sindh province, local police officials confirmed.
The incident occurred along the National Highway near the busy Rohri Interchange, situated within the Sukkur district of Sindh. According to preliminary reports from the responding police authorities, the disaster unfolded when a high-capacity gas bowser carrying volatile fuel collided at high speed with another heavy trailer travelling along the arterial route.
The impact of the collision ruptured the bowser’s pressurised tank, triggering a violent blast and a subsequent firestorm that engulfed surrounding transport vehicles, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Police confirmed that both individuals killed in the tragedy were occupants of the gas bowser, specifically the driver and the vehicle’s cleaner, who were caught directly in the immediate blast radius and died on the spot.
Emergency services and rescue teams rushed to the crash site shortly after receiving reports of the explosion. The five injured victims, many of whom suffered severe burns and trauma injuries, were evacuated from the wreckage and transferred to a nearby medical facility in Sukkur for urgent treatment. Medical personnel reported that several of the injured remain in critical condition.
The force of the blast and the resulting inferno caused extensive destruction to surrounding vehicular traffic along the highway. Authorities noted that a total of six additional vehicles were damaged or destroyed in the blast, including two fuel tankers, three heavy cargo trailers, and a commercial Mazda truck.
Traffic along the National Highway was temporarily halted as police cordoned off the Rohri Interchange area to facilitate firefighting operations, clear burned debris, and initiate a formal safety investigation into the precise cause of the collision.
–IANS
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