At least eight children are among 18 flood survivors who died after the bus they were travelling in caught fire in Pakistan.

Police have said almost all the passengers were from the same extended family.

The bus was travelling near Nooriabad in the Jamshoro District when the vehicle’s air-conditioning unit short-circuited and caused the fire late on Wednesday local time.

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

Officers said eight children and nine women were among those who died, but Indian news channel NDTV is now reporting that 12 children were killed in the fire.

Qurban Ali, a passenger on the bus whose children died in the fire, said: “We were on our way to our home, suddenly the bus caught fire.

“A few passengers were safe, but many of my family members burned to death, including my two kids and eight kids of my brother, my cousin’s sons and my sister-in-law.”

The family members were among the thousands of people who moved to Karachi because of devastating floods which left hundreds of people dead in Pakistan.

Rescue teams rushed to the site and started to evacuate the passengers but some were trapped inside and could not escape, according to officials.

Seven passengers were injured.

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Sultan Ahmed Khwaja , additional inspector general of police, said after the deadly fire: “Those were the flood-affected families, who were going back to their villages after the flood water receded.

“Almost all the passengers were from one family, (the) bus caught fire due to an air-conditioning short circuit, that’s why children on the back seats were affected the most.”

The fire broke out not far from the local police and fire stations in Nooriabad, Mr Brohi said.

“The proximity saved the lives of many bus passengers as both the police and fire engine reached the scene in minutes,” Mr Brohi added.

Many of the bodies were reportedly charred beyond recognition.

Mr Brohi said rescue services moved the injured passengers to the main hospitals in Jamshoro and Nooriabad.

Deadly road accidents are common in Pakistan due to poor road infrastructure and disregard for traffic laws, as well as poorly maintained vehicles.

In August, 20 people were killed in a fiery crash on a motorway in Multan, Southern Punjab, when a bus collided with an oil tanker.

In July of last year, a jam-packed bus carrying mostly laborers travelling home for a major Muslim holiday rammed into a container truck on a busy highway in central Pakistan, killing at least 33 people.

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