A mass funeral was held for 125 unidentified victims of the Bahawalpur oil tanker explosion on Tuesday.

The bodies were buried in numbered graves by the district administration.

The administration said that DNA samples of the victims have been taken and will be matched by those of their relatives to ascertain the identities of numbered graves.

The relatives will be allowed to rebury their loved ones at a place of their choosing once they are identified.

The mass funeral was held only for the 125 unidentified victims while those who could be identified had been handed over to their relatives.

An oil tanker crashed on a road at Ahmad Pur Sharqia on Sunday and more than 157 people, many of whom had rushed to collect leaking fuel, were killed when it exploded.

The tanker carrying 40,000 litres of fuel overturned after trying to make a sharp turn while travelling from Karachi to Lahore on the main highway.

The disaster occurred when hundreds of residents of a nearby village gathered at the site of an overturned oil tanker to collect the leaking fuel. It's believed that a spark from the many cars and motorcycles that raced to the scene ignited the fuel.

Nearly a hundred people were injured as a result of the incident, the government officials said.

A senior rescue official in the area said the death toll could rise further as dozens are still in critical condition and overburdened hospitals struggle to treat the scores of severely burned victims.