An overturned oil tanker exploded in a huge fireball in Pakistan on Sunday killing more than 150 people, including many women and children, who had rushed to the site to collect fuel spilling from the crashed vehicle.
Witnesses described terrifying scenes at the site in the city of Ahmad Pur Sharqia, Punjab province.
Ejaz Hussain Lashari, a student, said: “I heard everyone sitting nearby crying for help. You couldn’t understand what they were saying. I could only understand everyone was calling for help. I saw a woman holding a jerry can screaming ‘my baby, please tell me where my little baby is’. Unfortunately we couldn’t do anything.”
Survivors described an explosion, like a bomb going off, in the blaze, which could have been sparked by a dropped cigarette, as villagers went running with jerry cans and buckets to collect the spilt fuel, after the tanker toppled off the main road near Bahawalpur.
The tanker, which was going from Karachi to Lahore and carrying 25,000 litres (5,500 gallons) of fuel, might have had a tyre blow out while rounding a steep bend just before 6.30am.
As the fire spread, many of those who died were holding containers full of fuel. Local news showed billowing clouds of black smoke, and the road littered with burnt out cars and motorbikes.
Lashari said that by the time the first fire crew arrived, 30 minutes after the fire started, “everything was burned into ashes, bodies were beyond recognition and the injured were screaming”. He said a huge crowd had gathered at the scene before the explosion. “Who knows if someone lit a cigarette?”
A loudspeaker on top of a local mosque alerted villagers to the leaking fuel, and scores raced to the site with jerry cans, said Rana Mohammad Salim, deputy commissioner of Bahawalpur.
Shukat Hayat, an inspector general with the motorway police, said officers tried to keep people away but were overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. It was too early to establish the cause of the disaster, he said.
The dash to collect the fuel can in part be explained by Pakistan’s chronic energy crisis, with frequent electricity blackouts exacerbating anger at the government.
Dozens of people were taken to District Headquarters hospital and Bahawal Victoria hospital, the nearest big health facility, where only days ago local community leaders had called for a burns unit to be established.
People with up to 80% burn injuries were ferried to the combined military hospital at Multan.
Local officials on Sunday put the death toll at 153, with many more injured. “Around forty bodies were beyond recognition,” said Baqir Hussain, a rescue official from the area. Punjabi government officials said DNA evidence would have to be used to identify many of the bodies.
The death toll could rise further as another 50 people are still in critical condition.
Shahid Iqbal was approaching the site when he saw the black cloud of smoke rise. Many people from his village had already hurried there with containers hoping to collect fuel.
“The first thing came in my mind, a bomb went off, as security situation in the country was already tense,” he said. “Then people started shouting it’s a tanker that has caught fire. We started moving close to the site but the fireball that was there; there was nothing we could do.We couldn’t go close to it.”
Saznoor Ahmad, 30, whose two cousins were killed in the fire, said the crowd of people screamed as the flames engulfed them. “The fire moved so fast,” he said.
When the fire erupted, the mosque loudspeaker called on the remaining villagers to help put it out.
Mohammed Salim ran toward the smoke carrying buckets of water and sand, but said the heat was too intense to reach those in need. “I could hear people screaming but I couldn’t get to them,” he said.
Abdul Malik, a local police officer who was also among the first to arrive, said: “I have never seen anything like it in my life. Victims trapped in the fireball. They were screaming for help,” he said.
Firefighters fought the flames for more than two hours before they were put out. When the flames subsided the field was strewn with bodies, and nearby were the charred shells of motorcycles and cars that the villagers had used to race to the scene.
As the wounded cried out for help, residents wandered through the area looking for loved ones.
Zulkha Bibi was searching for her two sons. “Someone should tell me about my beloved sons, where are they? Are they alive or are they no longer in this world? Please tell me,” she pleaded.
The prime minister’s office said the Punjab provincial government had been directed to provide full medical assistance.
“Prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has expressed deep grief over the heavy loss of life in the unfortunate accident of oil tanker fire at Ahmad Pur Sharqia, Bahawalpur,” the statement said.
Imran Khan, the leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), said it was a “national tragedy of epic proportions”.
Pakistan has an appalling record of fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
At least 65 people were killed in a similar incident 18 years ago in Punjab, when an overturned fuel truck in Adda Rodu Sultan exploded just as dozens had gathered to collect petrol.