Seven killed as oxygen cylinder blast sets Tharparkar ambulance on fire

Seven people were killed in Tharparkar on Wednesday when an ambulance caught fire after its oxygen cylinder exploded while staff were fitting a replacement, rescue officials said.

The dead were four employees of the basic health centre where the ambulance was parked, a pregnant woman who was inside the vehicle during the procedure, and two people who had come to the facility with patients, according to rescue officials. All seven died of burn injuries.

Hospital administration officials said staff were changing the ambulance's oxygen cylinder while the pregnant woman remained inside. The cylinder exploded during the process and set the vehicle alight, they said. Officials from the Assistant Commissioner's office also confirmed the explosion. Rescue personnel said the fire spread through the ambulance, killing all seven people on board.

The Express Tribune reported the same death toll but added that five people were injured in the incident. Geo News, which first carried the report, did not mention any injured. Neither outlet identified the injured or said where they were being treated, and the two accounts could not be reconciled from the details either published.

Neither report named the health centre or the town within Tharparkar district where it is located. Tharparkar is one of Sindh's largest districts, a desert region bordering India.

Geo News noted that the incident had again drawn attention to safety risks involving oxygen cylinders and emergency medical transport at health facilities.

A separate, unrelated explosion was reported the same day in Sukkur, where a liquefied petroleum gas bowser blew up near the National Highway and motorway interchange, killing two drivers belonging to Khushab and injuring others, according to ARY News. Sukkur Deputy Commissioner Nadir Shahzad said the cause of that blast was being investigated and that a Counter Terrorism Department team had collected evidence.