16 children die in Pakistan school bus fire

Islamabad: Sixteen children and a female teacher were killed when their school bus caught fire on Saturday in the city of Gujrat, abut 170 kilometres southeast of Islamabad in the Punjab province, police said.

The bus carrying 24 children, aged between five and 15, was near their privately-run school on the outskirts of the city when the fire broke out, district police chief Dar Ali Khattak told the media. Seven children survived with injuries in the blaze which destroyed the vehicle, he said.

The fire was apparently caused by a spark when the driver switched to petrol from compressed natural gas, which is used by millions of vehicles in the country as a cheaper alternative to petrol and diesel.

Two children who escaped by jumping out from a window in the rear of the bus told reporters that they smelt gas before the fire broke out.

“We told the driver there was a very bad smell of gas leakage. But he did not listen and soon after the fire erupted,” a 10-year boy who survived the blaze told the Geo television.

The driver, who fled and left the van in flames, has been arrested in the nearby city of Kharian, police official Abid Khan said.

Initial reports said the driver had also kept petrol in a plastic bottle, as reserve fuel for emergency use, which may have contributed in intensifying the fire, he added.

The dead included three children of police constable Mohammad Riaz, and the dead teacher was their aunt, residents said, adding that thousands of people attended their funeral.

Numerous incidents of gas cylinder explosions on vehicles have been reported in the country, but Khattak said that the gas cylinder on the bus was intact.

President Asif Ali Zardari, caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso and political leaders including prime minister-in-waiting Nawaz Sharif expressed shock and sorrow over the tragic incident and sympathised with the bereaved families.