KARACHI (AP) – At least seven people were killed after a car on a moving passenger train caught fire overnight in southern Pakistan, officials said yesterday.
Railways official Mohsin Sial said the train caught fire in Khairpur, a district about 500 kilometres north of Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. He said six people were killed in the blaze while a woman died when she jumped from the window of the moving train.
The blaze also badly damaged several other cars in the train, he said, and the cause remained unclear.
TV footage showed several burned sections of the train, which was on its way from Karachi to the eastern city of Lahore, when a car caught fire. Local media reported that the flames roared through the train on Wednesday night, engulfing several cars.
In Pakistan, poor passengers often bring their own small gas stoves on the trains to cook their meals, despite rules barring the practice. Safety regulations are often ignored in overcrowded trains. Train accidents in Pakistan are often the result of poor railway infrastructure and official negligence.
