KARACHI: A 10-year-old student was killed and his teenage brother injured when an apparently speeding vehicle hit their motorbike in Defence Housing Authority on Thursday, police said.

They added that Hammad, 10, was killed while his brother, Talha, 16, injured in Phase-I of DHA.

Defence SHO Mohammed Ali Niazi said the brothers were on their way home from school. The injured boy, Talha, was riding the motorbike.

When they reached near Pahari Masjid in Phase-I, a van hit them. They fell off the motorbike and were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where Hammad was pronounced as dead.

The police impounded the vehicle and arrested the driver, Tanveer.

Three hurt in Defence sewer explosion

A teenage boy and two other persons were injured and burnt when a sewerage line exploded inside a barber shop located in the Badar Commercial area on Thursday, Darakhshan police said.

The explosion triggered fear and panic in the area, prompting the authorities to call bomb disposal experts, who declared it an accident, said Darakhshan SHO Azam Ali Gopang.

The officer quoting Bomb Disposal Squad officials said the barber shop owners were using certain chemicals for facials etc, which they threw into the gutter line. The sewerage line was leaking and its gas filled the shop. The room was airtight. When an owner, Umer Raza, 25, opened the door of the salon, it triggered an explosion, causing injuries to him and two employees of a nearby workshop. The two other injured were identified as Nazim, 24, and Madani, 17. They were taken to the JPMC for treatment.

A JPMC official said that they sustained burn wounds but were out of danger.

The explosion caused substantial damage to the shop.

The SHO said since it was an accident, no case had been registered.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2019