LAHORE: The fire in the oil tanker that killed five workers in a steel factory near BRB Canal erupted after an attempt was made to plug a hole in it through welding.

The incident took place when workers were mending the hole in the oil tanker with gas-welding rods, a factory worker told Dawn on Tuesday.

He said on Monday night the factory owner asked the workers to get the hole in the tanker plugged and called a gas welder. He said the workers had emptied the tanker and shifted crude oil to drums before starting welding. However, some oil left in the tanker caught fire which eventually engulfed the entire factory, killing five workers on the spot.

Hadiara police have registered a case against factory owner Mian Abdul Waheed on the complaint of Akbar, a brother of Imran who was killed in the fire.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2015