QUETTA: At least 18 people were killed Friday in a huge blaze that erupted after gunmen opened fire on a passenger van at a petrol station in the restive southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said.

Seven women and four children sitting in the van were among the dead, senior local official Abdul Mansoor Kakar told AFP, and a number of shopkeepers were killed as the inferno consumed nearby shops.

The incident took place in the outskirts of Khuzdar, around 250 kilometres southwest of Quetta, the capital of insurgency-hit Balochistan province.

According to eyewitnesses, drums of petrol and diesel on the side of the road by the petrol station erupted in a huge blaze when the gunmen opened fire at the van. The fire quickly enveloped four shops nearby, eyewitnesses added.

Senior local official Abdul Mansoor Kakar also confirmed that unknown gunmen had opened fire on the van, igniting petrol drums by the roadside and triggering a massive inferno.

“At least four people have died and I have seen their bodies, but there could be six to eight deaths as rescue workers are searching the debris,” Kakar had said earlier. He now confirms that the death toll has risen to 18.

The fire had also gutted nearby shops, Kakar had said.

“A passenger coach was filling with fuel at a petrol stand when the fire erupted,” District police chief Fasihud-Din said.

When he was asked about reports that some people opened fire on the petrol pump which triggered the blaze, he said, “We are investigating it.”

So far, no militant organisation has claimed responsibility for the incident and it could not be ascertained if the shooting was targeted or not.

Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, suffers from a local separitist insurgency. Apart from a long-running nationalist movement, there has also been an alarming rise in sectarian terrorism in the province recently, with ethnic and religious minorities often targeted by militants.