RAWALPINDI: A woman and three children were killed and two injured when fire broke out at a gas filling station located near Hamza Camp, Shamsabad, here on Friday.

Rallies of motorcyclists celebrating Independence Day and traffic mess on the road proved a hurdle for the fire tenders to reach the scene of the fire. Two vehicles – a passenger wagon and a taxi - were getting their fuel tanks filled when the fire erupted. Within moments the two vehicles were engulfed giving no chance to the occupants to escape.

As the fire spread, the staff at the filling station escaped, but a large number of people from the neighbourhood rushed to the scene but they could not rescue the victims.

City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Abbasi told reporters that three children and a woman from Mansehra were burnt to death. The injured were shifted to Benazir Bhutto Hospital where they were stated to be in stable condition. “Right now the police do not know the real cause of the fire. And it would be too early to say whether there was any element of terrorism,” CPO Israr Ahmed said.

The bodies have been shifted to Holy Family Hospital.

The four victims were family members of a police official of Islamabad who reached the hospital after midnight to identify his family members. “The bodies were charred beyond recognition,” the deputy medical superintendent of emergency ward told Dawn. —Mohammad Asghar

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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