MULTAN:At least 20 people were burnt alive and six injured when a passenger bus collided with an oil tanker near Uch Sharif on the Multan-Sukkur Motorway (M-5) in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The accident occurred on the Motorway M5 in Uch Sharif near Multan where a bus going to Karachi from Lahore collided with an oil tanker due to which both vehicles caught fire, killing at least 20 persons. The passenger bus which left Lahore at 9:00 pm on Monday night was heading for Karachi when it met the accident on Motorway 5 at 2:00 am.
The bodies and injured were shifted to Nishter Hospital Multan for medico-legal formalities. So of the passengers who booked their tickets in Lahore were identified as Anus Shahid, Ashraf, Adil Shahid, Shahid Yaqub, Hashir Ahmad, Hassan, Abdul Nafeh, Naveed Ashraf, Muhammad Irfan, Zahid, Muhammad Mudasir, Muhammad Ahmad, Riaz and Usman.
Motorway police and rescue teams reached the spot after the accident and started rescue operation. Rescue sources said that 26 persons including driver and conductor were travelling on the bus. Rescue teams rescued eight persons in injured condition and shifted them to hospital where two injured persons succumbed to their wounds during treatment while 18 dead bodies were recovered so far from the wreckage of the bus.
Multan Deputy Commissioner Tahir Wattoo confirmed the incident in a statement, saying that the passenger bus, which was travelling from Lahore to Karachi, hit the oil tanker from the rear side at Jalalpur Peerwala interchange on the Motorway.