Explosion (illustration)
Explosion (illustration)Thinkstock

The crash of an oil tanker in Pakistan led to the death of at least 153 people, after a fire erupted on the leaking fuel, Reuters reported.

After an oil tanker overturned on a bend in a highway on the outskirts of the city of Bahawalpur, a large crowd of people gathered to collect the leaking fuel in containers.

However, 45 minutes later, the tanker exploded in a huge fireball that engulfed the surroundings, leading to mass death and at least 80 injured.

At least 20 of those killed are children.

According to officials, the fire started after someone lit a cigarette.

"People of the area and passersby had started gathering fuel when it exploded, burning everybody," provincial government spokesman Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan told Reuters.

Kahn said that the driver of the oil tanker survived the incident and has been taken into custody.