Explosion at glue factory in eastern Pakistan kills at least 16

According to Pakistani media reports, an explosion at a glue-making factory in Pakistan caused at least 16 injuries and caused fires to rage nearby homes.

On Friday, at around 5 a.m. (GMT) in the Malikpur district of Faisalabad, west of Lahore, in Punjab province, the explosion took place in the west of Lahore.

Local media reports that Faisalabad Commissioner Raja Jahangir Anwar was one of the people who first learned a gas leak inside the factory’s chemical warehouse was the cause of the explosion.

Authorities detained the factory manager, but they were still looking for the owner, who quickly fled the scene.

According to Pakistani channel Aaj TV, the blast flattened the factory’s roof and those of a few other nearby homes, sparking fires in at least three of them. Rescue teams crowding into the interior of a burning building from a central blast site in photos that the channel released.

According to authorities, six children were among the victims, the majority of whom were from nearby homes.

According to the TV station Geo News, rescue teams dug people out of piles of rubble and searched for them. A nearby hospital was treating the seven injured patients.