HARIPUR: At least eight people, including children, were killed and 11 others were injured after a Sui Northern Gas supply line located near a factory burst and caught fire in the Hattar Industrial Estate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Haripur district, officials said.
The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
Dr Munawwar Afridi from Haripur district headquarters hospital (DHQ), who is also associated with the rural health centre (RHC) in the Kot Najibullah union council, told Dawn that three of the bodies were brought to the DHQ and five others to the RHC.
Among the injured, he said, eight people had sustained minor injuries and had been discharged after being provided first aid.
One of the injured from the remaining two had suffered a head injury, and the other’s leg had been fractured, he added. “They are being provided medical treatment at the DHQ,” he said.
Haripur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Waseem Ahmed told Dawn it appeared that the deaths were mainly caused by suffocation.
He separately told the media that the fire had engulfed three to four nearby houses located within a radius of 200 metres of the factory.
Muhammad Amir, an official of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), told Dawn that the affected pipeline had a diameter of 16 inches and supplied gas to industrial estates up to Abbottabad towards the north.
It was located near 400 residential quarters of Hattar Industrial Estate, he added.
Mr Amir said while the cause of the fire was yet to be determined, area residents had informed the SNGPL about a “gas explosion and large fire” at around 6:30pm.
Deputy Commissioner Ahmed told Dawn that the fire was controlled after three hours of efforts.
Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2026
