At least 18 people, including 12 children, died in the fire in a bus carrying people displaced by the country’s catastrophic floods home, authorities and rescue teams said.
This South Asian country suffered unprecedented monsoon rains this year, leaving a third of its land area under water, displacing 8 million people and causing an estimated $28 billion in economic damage.
As the waters slowly recede, thousands of displaced people, many of them sheltered in tents in temporary camps, return to their regions of origin to try to rebuild their lives.
Among them were the passengers of the bus set on fire on Tuesday night.
Police said the victims were killed when the bus caught fire outside the city of Karachi.
“They were returning to their village when they were affected by this accident,” Vinod Kumar, a district health officer who attended the scene, told the AFP news agency.
“Apparently, the fire originated in the bus’s air conditioning system.but the investigation will reveal the real cause,” said police officer Hashim Brohi, who was also present.
