LAHORE MIRROR — At least seven people were killed and around 13 others injured when an LPG cylinder installed in a passenger van with around 20 onboard exploded in Bhalwal city of Sargodha district, police said on Saturday.
The van, a white Toyota Hiace, with a substandard cylinder filled with LPG gas for fuel, was en route to Kot Momin when the unfortunate incident took place.
The police said that the explosion took place due to a gas leak from the LPG cylinder. The vehicle caught fire right after the cylinder’s explosion.
Eyewitness Kot Momin Police Station Head Constable Mohammad Shahid, who was heading to work, said that he was sitting on the front seat of the van when the cylinder exploded around 8:30am.
He said he got out of the van immediately. Then, he broke the middle and the rear doors of the van to take the passengers out as the flames engulfed the entire vehicle.
“I pulled some of the burning passengers out of the van but couldn’t save six to seven people present in the van,” Shahid said.
The injured were shifted to nearby hospitals in Sargodha and Kot Momin.