The motorway is temporarily closed for 2 hours as rescue teams contain the fire; the highway is 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 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan district, destroying goods worth millions of rupees, police said.
According to the police, the cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The fire engulfed the vehicle and the cargo was reduced to ashes. Thick smoke spread over the area and completely closed the road to traffic.
Traffic on the Indus Highway, the main route from Peshawar to Karachi, was temporarily disrupted and the road was closed for 1.5 to 2 hours as emergency services rushed to the scene to bring the fire under control.
After the fire was extinguished, the remains of the truck were removed from the highway and the road was reopened. Authorities said no injuries 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 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district. Rescue 1122 told Express Pakinomist that the incident took place near Maira area within Shangla’s jurisdiction after dark, allegedly due to poor visibility on the main road.
Pakistan records tens of thousands of road accidents annually. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 27,000 people die each year on our roads, while hundreds of thousands are injured.
