At least 70 people were killed after a train traveling between the cities of Karachi and Rawalpindi in Pakistan caught fire due to a gas cylinder explosion.
The train was passing through the Punjab city of Rahim Yar Khan when the explosion from a gas cylinder being used by passengers cooking breakfast caused a fire that spread to at least three carriages.
According to Nadeem Zia, the medical supervisor of District Headquarters Hospital in Liaquatpur, at least 70 people died while another 40 were injured. Officials said many of the victim died trying to jump off the burning train.
Army troops, paramedics, and an army aviation helicopter responded to the accident site.
Many of the passengers were pilgrims heading to Raiwind near Lahore to attend the country's largest annual religious congregations, organised by the Tablighi Jamaat Sunni Muslim missionary movement.
Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed narrated: "Two cooking stoves blew up. They were cooking, they had [cooking] oil which added fuel to fire." The minister pointed out that while it's common to carry food on board, gas cylinders are banned and passengers bringing stoves onto trains in order to cook meals on long journeys is a common problem.
The three carriages that were affected by the fire were the 11th carriage, which had 54 people, and the 12th and 13th carriage, which had 78 passengers each. District deputy commissioner Jamil Ahmed said they would need to use DNA to identify the casualties as some of the victims were severely burnt beyond recognition.
While the gas cylinders were reported to have sparked the fire, some of the survivors believed that a short circuit on board may have caused the accident.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed on Twitter that he was "deeply saddened by the terrible tragedy" and that he had ordered an "immediate inquiry" into the incident.
