HYDERABAD, Dec 19: At least 21 people received serious burn injuries, three of them stated to be in a critical condition, when an oil tanker being carried on a 26-wheeler trailer exploded after it tried to break the chains of a railway crossing and got hit by a local Hyderabad-bound Shah Latif Express, which was coming from Mirpurkhas here on Friday evening.

Rescuers and fire tenders rushed to the spot and started shifting the injured to civil hospital Hyderabad where according to the medical superintendent, Dr Abdul Jabbar Shaikh, emergency has been declared. He said that most of the injured had suffered 30 per cent to 40 per cent burn injuries.

“One of them has received 60 per cent burn injuries while another received 50 per cent burn wounds”, said the medical superintendent.

He said that 21 patients had so far been brought to the hospital’s burns ward. It was fire superintendent Inayatullah who has been shifted to Karachi for he received 60 per cent burn victims.

Around eight injured persons have been admitted to the hospital for further treatment and three of them are said to be in a critical condition.

The incident took place at around 6.30pm when driver of the Hyderabad-bound Shah Latif Express had to apply emergency brakes when he saw the trailer approaching Narejani railway crossing, which is located between Hyderabad and Detha railway station near New Hyderabad City. It is commonly used by heavy trailers and commuters for going to and from Mirpurkhas. The train hit the oil tanker, which fell on the track. It exploded after around one hour of the collision.

“The trailer driver had even broken chains of the railway crossing in order to cross the track”, said supervising police officer (SPO) Tandojam, Khalid Taggar.

He said that the driver escaped when the oil tank fell on the down county railway track that is used by railway traffic coming from upcountry.

The incident took place at a location, which is defined as an intersection of down and upcountry and Mirpurkhas-Hyderabad railway tracks. Since down country track has been badly damaged besides Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas track by tanker’s wreckage a crane had been brought in to remove the burnt vehicle.

The train driver showed prudence when he reversed the train towards Mirpurkhas and stationed around one furlong away from the site of the incident otherwise the situation could have been more serious. Journalists, photographers and TV cameramen rushed to the spot to cover the collision. Some of them who were identified as Ameen Qureshi, a photographer, Altaf and Nadeem (both TV cameramen), were injured when the tanker exploded while they were taking footage of the wreckage.

The fire fighters who also got injured during the relief operation included Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Sharif, Shakeel and Tanvir Ahmed. They have been admitted to the civil hospital’s burns wards.

The rail traffic remained suspended on the track. Police had blocked railway crossing from two sides for traffic which is being diverted at Hatri and by-pass locations. Passengers of Shah Latif Express faced hardships due to cold and rain, which continued intermittently. The train is still stationed on the track as the cleaning of wreckage is under way.

Only one train left for Tando Adam from Hyderabad railway station. An area of around one kilometre has been affected due to the incident as oil has spread everywhere.