Fireworks kill wedding guests

2005-12-11 21:15

Lahore - At least 38 passengers returning from a wedding party in the Pakistani city of Lahore were killed on Sunday when firecrackers being carried on their crowded bus exploded, police said.

"Thirty-eight people have died and 19 were injured in the bus fire," Nayab Haider Naqvi, a police spokesperson told AFP.

"Twelve people are seriously injured while seven have been discharged from hospital after receiving treatment for their wounds," he added.

Pakistani television said that about 50 people were feared dead, but police could not confirm it.

"We think the blast was caused by fireworks going off in the bus," Amir Zulfiqar, a senior police officer, told reporters at the scene of accident.

Local residents said the explosion occurred just after a young boy was seen throwing firecrackers out of a rear window of the bus.

"I saw a boy throwing a firecracker from the window of the bus and some sparks from it dropped inside the bus.

"Then there was an explosion and fire," Ashiq Ali, 33, a local resident told AFP.

"I saw three to four young boys jumping out of the burning bus from the rear door," he added.

Rescue workers and police faced delays in reaching the scene of the accident in the congested Ghazi Abad neighbourhood of the city due to traffic jams.

But once there, they began removing badly charred bodies from the burnt out wreckage of the bus, witnesses said.

The chief minister of Punjab province, Chaudhry Pervez Illahi, has ordered an investigation into accident, an official from his secretariat told AFP.

Despite being prohibited, fireworks and firecrackers are often set off at weddings in Pakistan.

Many people have been killed in the past while making or storing fireworks in congested residential areas.

- AFP