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ISLAMABAD, June 25-- At least 143 people were killed and 156 others injured in an oil tanker fire that broke out in Bahawalpur district of Pakistan's eastern Punjab Province on Sunday morning, officials said. Javaid Iqbal, a medic at the Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur, said that the death toll has risen to 143 after three of the injured shifted to a burn center in another district of Multan succumbed to injuries during treatment. Iqbal feared that the death toll might further rise as over 20 of the injured are still in critical condition at the burn centers at different hospitals. According to some official sources, currently 108 injured are present in Victoria Hospital, 31 in Nishtar Hospital in Multan and 17 in a military hospital in Bahawalpur. A total of 75 motorbikes and six vehicles including a traffic police vehicle were burnt out in the fire, said police. The site was littered with numerous bodies burned beyond recognition, said eyewitnesses. According to police, the tragic incident took place at 6:23 a.m. local time when an oil tanker fully packed with around 50,000 liters of petrol skidded off the road after tire burst on a highway in Ahmad Pur Sharqia, a small town about 400 km southwest of Lahore, capital city of Punjab Province. The fire broke out after many people from nearby villages came in motorbikes to collect the oil spilled out from the capsized oil tanker. An eyewitness said that soon after the tanker skidded off the road, local people from nearby villages rushed to the site and later on also telephoned other people to collect the petrol. | 
