13 passengers killed as van catches fire on Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway

At least 13 people have been killed while several others sustained burns when a passenger van overturned and caught fire on the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) on Saturday night, officials said.

According to the details, the van was carrying at least 20 people when it overturned near the Lucky Cement factory located on the road, reports said.

Meanwhile, the rescue teams immediately ran to the scene of incident, out of the seven survivors, five were shifted to the nearby hospital for treatment, Additional IG Motorway Police Dr Aftab Pathan said.

The Additional IG said six of the bodies had been recovered from the site of incident. The survivors included the van driver and a child.

“The bodies could not be immediately identified,”he added.

According to the reports, the van was on its way to Karachi from Hyderabad when the accident occured 63 kilometres from Hyderabad.

After the accident, the flow of traffic was suspended after the Motorway Police closed the Hyderabad-Karachi section of M-9.