VEHARI: An oil tanker flipped over near Chak-192/EB about 20 kilometres off here on Sunday.

Reports said some locals gathered around the tanker with bottles and drums to fill these with oil but the tanker driver and helpers stopped them.

The crew emptied the vehicle through pipes in the presence of police and rescue teams who came there within half an hour.

They helped the oil tanker crew in taking out oil and made the crowd disperse after cordoning off the area. It took them three hours to unload the tanker.

District Police Officer Umar Saeed Malik told Dawn that the oil tanker carried about 4,000-ton light diesel and it had the capacity to have 25,000 ton oil. He denied reports that people had gathered there to siphon oil. He said the tanker was in police custody for completing formalities. He claimed that it overturned owing to speeding on its way from Multan to a local shed situated at Chak-198/EB.

Deputy Commissioner Ali Akbar Bhatti also visited the place of accident and checked the unloading process.

It comes just two weeks after a similar incident in Bahawalpur’s Ahmedpur East area when a fire erupted at the site of a toppled oil tanker as scores of locals collected fuel from the vehicle’s cargo.

Police had failed to timely show up at the site of the accident and the tragedy claimed lives of 219 people whereas 38 injured people are still being treated in hospitals.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2017