By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, (AA & Dawn): At least ten people have been killed and 50 others injured in a powerful blast in an auto rickshaw in Pakistan’s northeastern Multan city on Sunday, police said.
“We are investigating the nature of the blast,” Multan police chief Azhar Akram told reporters.
According to details, the explosion happened on Vehari road of Multan. Around seven to eight rickshaws were also damaged due to the explosion.
The injured are being treated in Nishtar Hospital Multan, where the condition of few is considered critical.
The explosion, which according to eyewitnesses could be the result of a gas cylinder flare-up, was so powerful that it destroyed several other vehicles, and smashed windowpanes of nearby buildings with giant plums of smoke wafting upwards.
TV footage showed the site strewn with pieces of human flesh, blood-soaked shoes, caps, glasses and other belongings.
Multan lies in a region dotted with thousands of religious seminaries, with several belonging to local al-Qaida linked militant outfits.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed deep grief and sorrow over the Multan blast and emphasised upon rescue agencies to speed up the relief efforts.
He directed the concerned authorities to provide special medical care to the injured.
Earlier it was reported that the explosion happened due to a blast in gas cylinder fitted in the rickshaw that was destroyed.
Police officials, however, had said that the explosion might not be of a gas cylinder blast as they were probing the actual cause of explosion.
[Photo: Damaged rickshaw after the blast in Multan. Photographer: APP]