13 killed in Faisalabad CNG station explosion

FAISALABAD: A massive blast at a gas station in civil lines area of Faisalabad on Tuesday killed 13 people and injured more than 50 others, officials said.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known.

"The blast took place at a CNG (compressed natural gas) pump. 13 people were killed and more than 50 others were injured. At the moment we can't say anything about the nature of the blast," commissioner Tahir Husain told Geo News.

"We have taken out around 13 bodies from the blast site," he said.

"There are some people trapped under the building rubble. We have deployed our cranes and machinery to rescue them very soon," he added.

Husain said the "probability is very strong" that the blast was caused by a militant attack but cautioned that investigations were "still in the formative phase. We will be able to say something after investigations," he said.

Television pictures showed the station had been reduced to a pile of bricks and gnarled metal as rescue officials worked to remove rubble from the scene to search for survivors and ambulance vehicles ferried the injured away.

Rescue official Mohammad Asif confirmed the details of the incident and put the toll of injured higher.

"We have shifted 13 dead bodies and 53 injured to the hospital," he said.