Pakistan marks grim Eid after 153 killed in oil tanker inferno

Pakistan began Eid in mourning Monday as the death toll from an oil tanker explosion rose to 153, with scores more injured after they were caught in a fireball while scooping up spilt fuel.

Dozens of grief- stricken relatives waited outside hospitals in Bahawalpur, the nearest major city to the disaster, to claim the bodies of their loved ones as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived to visit victims.

Around a dozen of them, carrying the blackened remains of two victims wrapped in white cloth on charpoys, tried to reach the prime minister in protest but were stopped by security personnel a few meters away.

“The day of Eid has become a day of mourning and pain for us,” Sharif told the media outside Victoria Hospital, adding he has ordered an inquiry and compensation of two million rupees ($ 20,000) for the families of the dead, and one million rupees for the injured.

The tanker overturned early Sunday on a main highway from Karachi to Lahore while carrying some 40,000 liters of fuel. It exploded as crowds gathered to scavenge for fuel, ignoring warnings to stay away.

Police have said details remain unconfirmed, but cited witnesses who reported that a tire on the tanker had burst.

The accident quickly drew scores of people from a nearby village, many armed with whatever containers they could find despite warnings from the driver and police of the danger.

Minutes later the tanker exploded, engulfing the crowd as well as dozens of other vehicles in a massive fireball that sent a plume of thick smoke into the sky.