- As Hopes Fade in China for 118 Still Missing Day After Landslide
A speeding tanker suffered a burst tyre, crashed and exploded, killing at least 146 people in Pakistan on Sunday.
Reuters noted that hardly had the tanker crashed than many gathered to collect leaking fuel. It was while they were collecting fuel that it was ignited, government officials and rescue workers said.
“The driver lost control when the vehicle blew a tyre”, a provincial government spokesman said of the tanker which overturned on a sharp bend on a highway on the outskirts of the city of Bahawalpur; adding that the large crowd of people that gathered, to collect fuel in containers became direct victims when the tanker exploded in a huge fireball about 45 minutes later.
Rescue workers said that about 80 people were injured, 40 of them very seriously and were airlifted to hospitals in the nearby city of Multan.
“People of the area and passers-by had started gathering fuel when it exploded, burning everybody,” provincial government spokesman Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan told Reuters.
An estimated 20 children were among the dead, he said.
The accident happened the day before Pakistan celebrates the Eid al-Fitr festival, when families get together to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Many bodies were burned beyond recognition and television pictures showed piles of burnt out motorcycles, apparently those of people who were collecting fuel or watching events unfold.
Police had tried to clear the area before the tanker exploded but people ignored them, Khan said, adding that the initial crash had blocked the road, causing a traffic tailback.
The driver of the tanker survived the accident and was taken into police custody, he said.
The explosion took place on a stretch of highway cutting through the village of Ramzan Joya. Khalil Ahmed, a 57-year-old former government employee who lives in the village, said he had lost 12 relatives in the fire, which fire fighters extinguished in two hours.
“One body has been recovered and 11 others are still missing,” Ahmed said.
“After the spill, people began calling their relatives to come and gather the oil, and some showed up from nearby villages as well. There must have been 500 people gathered when the fire began.
“People were collecting oil in bottles, cans and household utensils. We tried to get them to move back before the fire started but no one was listening,” Ahmed said.
He estimated that about 100 people from the small hamlet are missing.
“The day of judgment has arrived for our village,” he said.
According to initial reports, somebody tried to light a cigarette,” said rescue services spokesman Jam Sajjad Hussain.
Police in the area could not be reached for immediate comment.
In the meantime, rescue workers in China searched for 118 people still missing more than 24 hours after a landslide buried a mountain village, with hopes fading on Sunday after 15 bodies were pulled out of the rock and mud during the first day of the search.
A couple and their two-month-old baby were found alive in the hours after the massive landslide crashed down on the village of Xinmo, in the southwest province of Sichuan as dawn broke on Saturday. But there was no news of any other survivors being found.
Authorities had not updated an overnight toll of 15 confirmed dead, but geological experts said that chances of survival for the missing were slim, state-owned Xinhua news agency reported.
“We weren’t able to pull anyone out alive,” Wu Youheng who lives in a neighboring village and rushed to help rescue efforts on Saturday, told Reuters.
“We pulled out two people but they were already dead. I think it’s too late, they’re unlikely to find anyone else alive.”
Wu said that the area was prone to landslides but the scale of Saturday’s slide was unprecedented.
Wu’s wife, Zhang Xiaohong, said that they often sleep in other villages because of fear of landslides but can’t afford to move to the safer capital of Mao county, where Xinmo is located.
At risk from more landslides in the area, a massive rescue effort involving more than 3,000 rescue workers was underway, Xinhua reported.
The names of the missing were posted on government websites, it said.
State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) showed images of industrial excavators removing rubble from a hillside along with workers in hard hats.
Heavy rain triggered the landslide, authorities said, although further light showers expected today and Monday were not expected to affect search efforts, CCTV reported.
Reports of the landslide remained largely absent from wider Chinese media apart from Xinhua, CCTV and party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres in offering his condolences said in a statement that the UN is prepared to offer any needed support.
Sichuan province is prone to earthquakes, including a 8.0 magnitude tremor in central Sichuan’s Wenchuan county in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.
Additional report from NBC
