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ISLAMABAD / RAWALPINDI: At least nine passengers were burnt alive and five others injured when fire engulfed a moving coaster on the Islamabad Highway on Tuesday after an explosion due to leakage of CNG.
Most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.
The coaster was going to Kalar Syedan from Faizabad when fire broke out at about 1.20pm in Krung Town, near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
The driver stopped the vehicle close to the road-divider and jumped out. Some passengers sitting on the front seats also jumped out to save their lives and a woman fractured her leg in the attempt.
The fire erupted in the middle of the vehicle and spread quickly, engulfing it within a minute.
The passengers sitting on the middle and rear seats were trapped in the flames and most of them were burnt alive.
Hundreds of vehicles were stuck in a traffic jam after the accident and rescue workers, firefighters and paramedics also faced difficulty in reaching the place.
The coaster was gutted before the arrival of the rescue Some of the injured were taken to hospital in private cars and others were shifted after the arrival of ambulances.
A fire engine hosed down the vehicle with water cannon to cool down its structure for the rescue workers. The only door for passengers at the front left side was found jammed and blocked by the wreckage of seats.
Special cutters were used to prise open the vehicle from the middle and reach out to victims. The rescue workers retrieved bodies by cutting the wreckage and seats.
Teams of experts examined the vehicle and ruled out the possibility of explosives having caused the blast.
State of the bodies showed that the victims had been burnt within seconds and did not get a chance even to move from their seats.
Six of the victims were identified as Mohammad Sarfaraz, Mohammad Razzaq and Karam Din of Kalar Syedan; Abdul Sayed of Rawat; and Tariq Mehmood and Ansar Mehmood of Rawalpindi. Their bodies were handed over to their families.
Three bodies lying in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences were yet to be identified.
Deputy Commissioner Amir Ahmed Ali said one of the victims had been identified with the help of his ring and another from his teeth.
He said the bodies not identified by Wednesday morning would be buried temporarily.
Samples from the bodies were kept at Pims for DNA tests.
Police said the driver had escaped and efforts were under way to arrest him and the owner of the vehicle.
An official at Pims said four freezers in the hospital’s mortuary had not been working properly for the past couple of months.
The conductor, Mohammad Ali, who had received head injures, said: “I heard an explosion and jumped from the vehicle.”
An injured passenger said: “I have no idea what happened. We only heard a blast and saw flames. I was trapped in the fire but followed some other passengers and jumped out from the driver’s door.”
Information collected by police from the bus terminal at Faizabad suggested that there were about 20 people in the coach.
Police quoted witnesses as saying that three people with minor injuries had left the place after the accident.
In the evening, Inspector General of Police Bani Amin and Chief Inspector (Explosives) Haroon Rehman examined the vehicle and suggested that the fire had erupted because of leakage of gas from a cylinder.
Mr Rehman said a faulty CNG kit system installation had caused the leakage and the gas had caught fire because of short circuit. He said the entire vehicle was, in all probability, reduced to ashes in a mere 100 seconds.
Kural police registered a case against the driver and owner of the coaster, accusing them of negligence.
Pims doctors said an injured woman and the conductor were in critical condition.
