Seven people were killed when a car on a moving passenger train caught fire overnight in southern Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.
The train caught fire in Khairpur, a district about 500km north of Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province, Pakistan Railways official Mohsin Sial said.
Six people were killed in the blaze, and a woman died when she jumped from the window of the moving train, he said.
Photo: AFP
The blaze caused severe damage to several other cars in the train, he said, adding that the cause remained unclear.
Television footage showed several burned sections of the train, which was on its way from Karachi to the eastern city of Lahore, when a car caught fire.
Local media reported that the flames roared through the train on Wednesday night, engulfing several cars.
In Pakistan, passengers often take their own small gas stoves on trains to cook their meals, despite rules barring the practice, and safety regulations are often ignored in overcrowded trains.
Train incidents in Pakistan are often the result of poor railway infrastructure and official negligence.
In 2019, at least 74 passengers were killed and dozens were injured in a train fire caused when a gas stove exploded in the eastern Punjab Province.
Also on Thursday, a roadside bomb targeted police vehicles in Khuzdar, a district in the volatile southwestern Balochistan Province, killing a local police chief working for the terrorism department, officials said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on separatist groups and militants who have claimed previous such attacks in the region and elsewhere in the country.
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