OIL TANKER EXPLODES IN PAKISTAN; AT LEAST 153 DEAD

An overturned oil tanker exploded Sunday on a Pakistani highway as local villagers gathered to collect the leaking fuel, engulfing them in an inferno that killed at least 153 people and critically burned scores more.

Authorities warned the death toll could rise from the accident near Bahawalpur, a city of about 1 million people near the Indian border. More than 150 people were injured, 50 of them critically, when the flames from the blast swept the crowd.

Regional police chief Raja Riffat told Pakistan’s Dawn news agency it was not immediately clear what ignited the fuel. Firefighters battled the blaze for two hours.

“When (the tanker) turned over, the residents of the nearby village of Ramzanpur Joya rushed to the site with buckets and other containers, and a large number of people on motorcycles also came and started collecting the spilling fuel,” Riffat said. He said the crowd rejected efforts by the highway patrol to clear the area.