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At Least 18 Dead In Pakistan Bus Fire

Updated

Volunteers search the remains of a passenger bus after it was engulfed by fire on the M-9 motorway in the Nooribad area of the Jamshoro district in Sindh Province early on October 13.
Volunteers search the remains of a passenger bus after it was engulfed by fire on the M-9 motorway in the Nooribad area of the Jamshoro district in Sindh Province early on October 13.

At least 18 flood-affected people, including children, died in southern Pakistan late on October 12 when the bus they were traveling in caught fire as they were returning home, officials said.

RFE/RL correspondents said the incident occurred on the M-9 motorway in the Nooribad area of the Jamshoro district in Sindh Province.

Eight children were among those killed, police and witnesses said.

The M-9 motorway connects the port city of Karachi with the Sindh cities of Hyderabad and Jamshoro.

Around 35 people were traveling on the bus. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear, but police said the fire apparently started at the rear portion of the bus and then engulfed the entire bus.

"Those who were traveling on the bus were flood-affected people who had relocated somewhere off the motorway, and they were heading back home to the Dadu district," Jamshoro District Commissioner Asif Jameel said.

The Dadu district is among the districts most affected by recent deadly floods in Sindh Province.

On August 20 people were killed in a fiery crash on a motorway in Multan, in southern Punjab, when their vehicle collided with an oil tanker.

Deadly road accidents are common in Pakistan, mainly due to speeding, poor road infrastructure, and use of unfit vehicles.

With reporting by Reuters

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