Bahawalpur (Staff Report): The death toll from an oil tanker explosion in Ahmadpur Sharqia rose to 203 on Monday morning.
A senior local administration official confirmed the toll.
The horrific early morning tragedy came hours before Pakistan was to celebrate festive occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramazan.
The oil tanker overturned on a main highway from Karachi to Lahore while carrying some 40,000 litres of fuel.
It exploded minutes later as hundreds of residents of a nearby village gathered to collect the leaking fuel from an overturned oil tanker when massive fire erupted and engulfed the tanker. The people were charred to death on the spot.