DADU: Around 10 men, women and children were injured when two coaches of the Peshawar-bound 19-Up Khushal Khan Khattak Express caught fire and many of the passengers jumped out of the affected coaches to save their lives late on Friday night.

The train, which had set off from Karachi, was moving slowly through the Lal Bagh area near Sehwan when some police personnel noticed flames and smoke coming out of one of its coaches and immediately alerted the driver and local Railways officials. However, the fire engulfed the next coach although the driver applied emergency brakes and the railway officials moved swiftly to get the other coaches detached from the affected ones.

The Railways and area police also rushed to the spot and started rescue work but many of the passengers had already jumped out of the affected coaches to save their lives. Some of the 10 people sustained minor burns and the rest suffered injuries in their attempt to jump off the coaches. None of them sustained serious injuries. Fearing casualties, the local Railways authorities had declared an emergency at the Sehwan, Bhan and Dadu Railways hospitals.

According to Railways officials, the traffic on the Sehwan-Dadu tracks remained suspended from 3:40am on Saturday as all trains scheduled to pass through the sector were halted at Dadu, Kotri and Manjhand stations until 9:20am, when the operation to remove the affected coaches was completed. The other coaches and locomotive of the Khushal Khan Express were moved away from the burning coaches soon after the fire had broken out.

Sehwan ASP Dr Sami Malik, Sehwan station master Amir Bux Qureshi and rail traffic inspector Shahid Hussain Khilji supervised the relief and rescue operation carried out by the area police, Railways police and Rangers.

Dr Malik told Dawn that according to initial reports, the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit. He said none of the injured victims was required to be taken to hospital.

Fire-fighters belonging to the Sehwan town committee managed to extinguish the fire by dawn.

The Sehwan station master said that relief operation was carried out promptly to clear the tracks within a few hours after the incident. The passengers of the train, speaking to Dawn, complained that they faced trouble during the ordeal due to absence of electricity, drinking water, food and other essential things at the Sehwan station.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2017