17 dead in Pakistan fireworks blast

At least 17 people were killed in central Pakistan today when fireworks caught fire and exploded as they were being loaded onto a truck.

Police in Sialkot, 60 miles north-west of Lahore, said two children at a nearby school were among the dead. Dozens of other people were wounded.

Many of the burning fireworks fell on the roof and in the courtyard of the school, starting a blaze, deputy police chief Syed Ahmed Gondal said.

Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, director general of the Interior Ministry’s crisis management centre, confirmed that 17 people had been killed.