Gas explosion kills minors outside Peshawar

The boys’ mother and 8-month-old sister taken to hospital with serious injuries.

PESHAWAR: Two children were burnt alive and two other sustained serious burns when a fire broke out in the suburban Pawaka area due to gas leakage early Wednesday morning, officials said.

Residents told The Express Tribune that a fire erupted in Wajib Khan’s house at about 5am. His sons Shahbaz and Shahzad died in the fire while his wife and eight-month-old daughter were seriously wounded and taken to a hospital.

They said that everything in the room, where the family was asleep, was reduced to ashes in the inferno and the mother was barely able to save the toddler and herself.

Rescue sources told The Express Tribune that a fire broke out after an explosion caused by leakage from a gas cylinder. Workers worker extinguished the fire within 30 minutes. A Rescue 1122 official Arooj said that Wajib Khan escaped the fire as he was in the bathroom.