Train driver says incident happened due to cylinder blast
Train driver Muhammad Siddique said the incident happened at 6:20 due to cylinder blasts.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Fire erupted in the bogies of train after 6 to 7 gas cylinder explosions, train driver said.
Train driver Muhammad Siddique said the incident happened at 6:20 and he stopped train at 6:23. Siddique said he is aggrieved over the loss of precious lives.
He said the train was immediately stopped when someone in the train pulled the chain. He said after seeing the fire in some bogies we firstly pulled them apart from others so that other bogies are not engulfed by the fire.
At least 73 passengers lost their lives and over 40 sustained critical burn wounds on Thursday when three carriages of a Tezgam Express caught fire due to explosion in gas canisters purportedly used by Tableeghi Jamaat passengers to cook breakfast near Talwari Station in Liaquatpur area of Rahim Yar Khan. The train was bound from Karachi to Rawalpindi.
Television footage showed flames pouring out of the carriages as people could be heard crying in the incident. Many commuters died and several were injured when they jumped from the moving train to escape the flames.
Emergency has been declared in all hospitals of the district. The wounded were rushed to hospitals in the nearby city of Bahawalpur and elsewhere in Rahim Yar Khan district.
