KARACHI: At least 18 workers were killed and
more than 60 injured on Tuesday after at least two blasts ripped through an oil
tanker at a ship-breaking yard, trapping others inside the vessel, local
officials said.
Another explosion was heard on Wednesday as
the firefighters struggled to put out the fire completely even today.
The leader of a ship-breaking workers union
said the fire had engulfed the vessel moored in Gaddani, 45km (28 miles)
north-west of the port city of Karachi.
“Things are really bad here,” union president
Basheer Mehmoodani said and added, “There’s an unclear number of workers said
to be trapped in the burning ship.”
At least 18 people were killed in the blasts,
said Zulfiqar Bokhari, a senior administrative official in the area.
Nasir Mansoor, a representative of the
National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan, said the explosions sent pieces of
metal flying up to two kilometres (one mile) away.
The blasts occurred in the fuel tank of the
ship, which was still on fire till the last updates injuring two rescue
officials.
Later firefighters from Karachi and from the
air force and navy were attempting to put out the blaze which was almost
controlled by the time this story was being published.
An eyewitness said the firefighters had to
wait for the fire to die out as they lack the foam required douse it.
Labourers in Gaddani often work in poor
conditions without basic protective gear.
The Gaddani ship-breaking industry has fallen
on hard times recently and employs about 9,000 workers, fewer than in its boom
years at the end of the last decade.
Source: ary news. 02 November 2016
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