Islamabad: At least 11 people, nine of them women and children, died after inhaling noxious fumes from an electricity generator outside their house in southwest Pakistan on Thursday, officials said.
The incident happened in Killi Karbala village, 70 kilometres north of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
“These people were asleep in the same room and inhaled poisonous gases emitted by an electricity generator installed outside their room,” senior local administration official Bashir Ahmad Bazai said.
He said they were found dead Thursday morning.
The hazardous gas leaked out of the gas generator often used to produce electricity to meet the frequent power outages in Pakistan, a local official of Levies tribal police said, adding that the incident occurred in the Pishin district.
“Around 15 family members were moved to hospital in an unconscious state where 11 of them died,” he said.
Use of gas generators is illegal in the country but the law is frequently violated as gas is cheaper and readily available in Balochistan.
The mishaps are caused due to interruption in gas supply which turns off the generators. The resumption of supply sometimes leads to leakages and accidents.
Frequent blackouts due to a long-standing energy crisis in Pakistan have forced many to turn to generators to power their homes, but safety standards are generally low and deaths due to carbon monoxide inhalation are not uncommon.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province, wracked for decades by a separatist insurgency.