Nine killed as vehicle catches fire in Pak

Nine members of a family were killed when a fire broke out in a van in Pakistan's Karachi city.

Police investigators said the fire broke out as the driver had kept a bottle filled with petrol near the engine and there was a short circuit.

The family was on way to attend a marriage ceremony in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of the city when the vehicle caught fire.

Six members of the family, including three children, died on the spot due to burns while five were admitted to a hospital where three of them died on Sunday.

SHO of the area police Fardad Sheikh said the family had rented the vehicle, which caught fire near New Karachi.

All the deceased had suffered 100 per cent burns, police said.

The driver of the van who survived the blaze as he got out quickly said his vehicle had also hit an auto-rickshaw which also caught fire.

Karachi police have started a drive to penalize drivers of auto-rickshaws and public vehicles who keep petrol in bottles to deal with the shortage of CNG in the country.