国际英语资讯:65 killed as passenger train catches fire in east Pakistan_时事

国际英语资讯:65 killed as passenger train catches fire in east Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 31 -- At least 65 people were killed and 14 others injured after a passenger train caught fire in Rahim Yar Khan district of Pakistan's east Punjab province on Thursday, a rescue official and local reports said.

The death toll is feared to rise as rescue work continues to recover more bodies from the compartments gutted in the fire, Baqir Hussain, district emergency officer of state-owned Rescue 1122, told Xinhua.

He said that the injured people have been shifted to three hospitals in Rahim Yar Khan and neighboring Bahawalpur district where a state of emergency has been declared by authorities.

Army troops including doctors and paramedics also moved to the incident site for rescue and relief operation, and an army aviation helicopter has also been dispatched to the site to evacuate the critical injured, the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement.

The accident happened due to the explosion of a gas cylinder, which the passengers carried with them on the train. The blast took off when the passengers were preparing their breakfast on the cylinder after morning prayer, District Coordination Officer Pakistan Railways Nabila Aslam told Xinhua.

She said that the cylinder exploded in one of the bogies, but the big fire also engulfed two adjoining compartments within minutes. Some people tried to save their lives by jumping off the running train in which some of them got seriously wounded.