The road was temporarily closed for 2 hours while rescuers contained the fire; Highway now open to traffic
A container truck carrying clothes caught fire on the Indus Highway in Dera Ismail Khan. PHOTO: EXPRESS
DERA ISMAIL KHAN:
A container truck carrying clothes caught fire on the Indus Highway on Monday near Dhorah Solhan Adda village in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, destroying goods worth millions of rupees, police said.
According to police, the cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The fire consumed the vehicle, reducing the load to ashes. A thick column of smoke spread through the area, completely blocking the road to traffic.
Traffic on the Indus Highway, the main highway from Peshawar to Karachi, was temporarily suspended and the road was closed for 1.5 to 2 hours while emergency services rushed to the scene to control the fire.
Once the fire was extinguished, the remains of the truck were removed from the road and the road was reopened. Authorities said no casualties have been reported so far, while an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.
On April 25, at least 11 people were injured in a road accident on the Karakoram Highway in Shangla district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Rescue 1122 said The express PAkGazette that the incident occurred near the Maira area within Shangla jurisdiction after dark, apparently due to poor visibility on the main road.
Pakistan records tens of thousands of road accidents a year. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 27,000 people die each year on our roads, while hundreds of thousands are injured.
