Children among seven killed in Pakistan train fire

Islamabad, April 27, (dpa/GNA) – A carriage on a moving passenger train caught fire in southern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least seven people, including children, officials said.

Rescuers found the charred bodies of at least four children in the burnt wreckage of the carriage after several hours of searching, said Mohsin Siyal, a spokesman for the railways.

The train was heading from the southern metropolis of Karachi to the eastern city of Lahore when the accident occurred in the town of Khairpur, Siyal added.

At least three other carriages on the train were engulfed by the fire before it was put out by firefighters.

An inquiry was under way to determine the cause of the fire, Siyal said.

Deadly train accidents are common in Pakistan, resulting in hundreds of deaths every year, due to poor infrastructure and official negligence.

More than 70 people died on a train in Pakistan in 2019 when several carriages caught fire after a cooking stove brought by a passenger exploded.

GNA