18 people from one family are killed – including 12 children – as bus returning flood victims home bursts into flames in Pakistan

• At least 18 members of the same family – including 12 children – die in bus fire 
• Bus was travelling near Karachi when fire broke out in air conditioning system
• The victims were travelling home after fleeing flood-affect region of Pakistan 
• One third of Pakistan flooded after unprecedented monsoon rain, 1,700 dead

At least 18 people from a single family, including 12 children, perished in a bus fire in Pakistan as they journeyed home after fleeing catastrophic monsoon flooding, officials and rescue workers said Thursday.

Police said the passengers died when flames broke out overnight on a northbound bus outside the city of Karachi, where they had settled after being forced to flee their homes from one of the worst flood-hit areas. 

Around 35 members of an extended family were on the bus on the M-9 motorway in the Nooriabad area of the Jamshoro district in Sindh Province when the fire broke out in the air conditioning system.

‘Those who were traveling on the bus were flood-affected people who had relocated somewhere off the motorway, and they were heading back home to the Dadu district,’ Jamshoro District Commissioner Asif Jameel said. 

The Dadu district is one of the worst hit by the recent deadly floods in Sindh Province, as an area the size of the United Kingdom was underwater at the peak of the flooding. 

Police officer Hashim Brohi said the bus was taking the extended family from the southern port city of Karachi to their hometown of Khairpur Nathan Shah after they heard flood waters had receded there. 

At least 18 people were killed, including 12 children, when a fire broke out on a bus carrying an extended family back to their home after they had been forced to flee Pakistan’s unprecedented monsoon flooding

The bus was taking the extended family from the southern port city of Karachi to their hometown of Khairpur Nathan Shah after they heard flood waters had receded there

The burnt interior of a passenger bus after an overnight fire incident near Nooriabad in Sindhs Jamshoro district early on October 13

Volunteers gather beside the charred bus on the M-9 highway. Police said the passengers died when flames broke out overnight on a northbound bus outside the city of Karachi

At least 18 people perished in the fire, including 12 children, all thought to be from the same family

They were among the thousands who moved to Karachi because of the country’s deadly flooding.

Brohi said the incident took place late Wednesday near Nooriabad hills hike, which is not far from the local police station and fire service station.

‘The proximity saved the lives of many bus passengers as both the police and fire engine reached the scene in minutes,’ Brohi said.

‘Apparently, the fire broke out in the air-conditioning system of the bus but investigations will reveal the real cause.’

He said rescue services moved the injured passengers to the main hospitals in Jamshoro and Nooriabad. The bodies, charred beyond recognition, will be handed over to relatives after legal formalities. 

Pakistan has been hit by unprecedented monsoon rains this year, putting a third of the nation underwater, displacing eight million people, and causing $28 billion worth of devastation.

Police officer Hashim Brohi said the bus was taking the extended family from the southern port city of Karachi to their hometown of Khairpur Nathan Shah after they heard flood waters had receded there

The quick response of fire and emergency services saved many lives, with 17 survivors, as the incident took place near Nooriabad hills hike, which is not far from the local police station and fire service station

Pakistani rescuers carry the body of a victim burnt in a bus in Karachi, Pakistan on October 13

Pakistan has a dismal record of fatal traffic accidents due to badly maintained vehicles, poor roads, reckless driving and poorly trained emergency services

As the waters slowly recede, thousands of the displaced – many living in ramshackle tent cities – are travelling back to their sodden homes to remake their lives. 

Pakistan has a dismal record of fatal traffic accidents due to badly maintained vehicles, poor roads, reckless driving and poorly trained emergency services.

The historic floods across the nation – which have killed 1,700 – have been linked to climate change.

Hollywood star and humanitarian Angelina Jolie visited Pakistan and said the flood disaster should be a ‘wake-up call’ for the world regarding climate change, calling for more international aid after meeting with victims.

Last month Pakistan was lashed by unprecedented monsoon downpours that flooded a third of the country – an area the size of the United Kingdom – and killed nearly 1,600 people, according to the latest government figures.

More than seven million people have been displaced, many living in makeshift tents without protection from mosquitoes, and often with little access to clean drinking water or washing facilities.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ said Jolie, who previously visited Pakistan to meet the victims of the devastating 2010 floods and a deadly 2005 earthquake, in footage released on Thursday.

Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented monsoon downpours that flooded a third of the country – an area the size of the United Kingdom – and killed nearly 1,600 people, according to the latest government figures. Jolie, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visited southern Sindh province, one of the worst-affected areas, where she met with displaced flood victims living in camps

Displaced people walk to a safer area following the deadly climate catastrophe in the Swat Valley

Pakistani men receive food, distributed by Pakistani Army troops in a flood-hit area in Rajanpur, district of Punjab

Victims of flooding from monsoon rains leave their flooded home in Sehwan, Pakistan on September 09

Displaced people from heavy monsoon flooding take refuge as they prepare food at a temporary tent housing camp organized by the Turkish Red Crescent, in Sujawal, Pakistan on September 14 

‘I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more… I think this is a real wake-up call to the world about where we are at,’ she told a meeting of civil and military officials in the capital Islamabad.

‘Climate change is not only real and it’s not only coming, it’s very much here.’

Jolie, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visited southern Sindh province, one of the worst-affected areas, where she met with displaced flood victims living in camps.

The United Nations has warned of a ‘second disaster’ from diseases such as dengue, malaria, cholera and diarrhoea, as well as from malnutrition.

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