The toll in the oil tanker explosion in Pakistan’s Punjab rose to 157 on Monday, with families rushing to hospitals to recover the charred bodies of their kin, PTI reported. A doctor at Bahawalpur’s Victoria Hospital said the new deaths occurred at a hospital in Multan where some of the critically injured were taken. The Dawn said that at least 118 people had been injured.

A tanker carrying 40,000 litres of petrol overturned and burst into flames on Sunday, in Ahmedpur Sharqia area of Bahawalpur district, some 400 kilometres from Lahore.

Residents who had rushed to collect the fuel after the petrol spill were charred to death. “People of the area and passersby had started gathering fuel when the tanker exploded, burning everybody at and around the spot,” provincial government spokesperson Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan said. The fire brigade arrived on the site of the incident shortly after the blaze started and rescue operations were initiated. Fire fighters fought the flames for nearly two hours before extinguishing the blaze.

The burn victims, many of whom are in critical condition, were airlifted by helicopter to Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital and nearby cities for treatment. Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa ordered the army to assist the civil administration in the rescue efforts, and many victims were thus taken to Bahawalpur by army aircraft.

The blaze erupted in Kachi Pul area near the national highway. Dozens of vehicles, including 75 motorbikes and four cars, were engulfed in the flames.

Relatives rush to hospital

On Monday, relatives of the victims gathered outside hospitals to claim the charred bodies, which can now only be identified using DNA tests, PTI reported.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had flown to London to visit his family for Eid, cut short his visit and returned to meet the victims’ families. Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced Rs 2 million each for the deceased and Rs 1 million each for the injured.

Jam Sajjad Hussain, spokesperson for the rescue workers service said on Sunday that a lit cigarette may have caused the blaze.