GUJRANWALA – At least five passengers were burnt to death while 14 others injured when a speeding passenger van caught fire after its CNG cylinder exploded following the vehicle’s collision with a road divider on Wednesday.

The charred bodies of the victims were beyond recognition. Reportedly, a van was on its way to Lahore when it collided with a road divider near Eimanabad while saving a cyclist who suddenly came in front of it.
Four cylinders - three CNG and one LPG - were fitted in the vehicle and one of them got damaged and caused ignition. The passengers sitting on the rear seats could not find time to rescue themselves and were burnt on the spot while 14 commuters managed to escape and later hospitalised in DHQ Gujranwala.
While talking to the TheNation, SP Cantt Kamoke Rana Mumtaz said it was not a cylinder blast rather cylinder leakage could be the reason of this fatal accident.
Gas cylinder blasts in passenger vans have increased in recent days, raising concern over the poor standard of CNG kits.
Twelve passengers were burnt alive when CNG cylinder of a van caught fire after explosion in Khairpur district on Tuesday. While on Sunday, five people were burnt to death in a same kind of blast in Faisalabad.