HANGU: Six people, including a couple and their four children, died of suffocation on Tuesday after gas from a heater filled the room of their house in the Gulshan Colony area of Hangu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
Rescue workers rushed to the scene after the Rescue 1122 control room received an emergency call. The workers found all six family members dead at the scene.
The bodies were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital. The deceased were identified as Nadir Khan, his wife, daughter and three sons.
According to Hangu police spokesperson Zahir Hussain, the family was visiting their relatives in Gulshan Colony, in the remits of City police station, and stayed at their house overnight. They had left the heater switched on before going to sleep because of the cold weather, he added.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the KP Chief Minister on Information Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif expressed grief over the incident.
In a statement, the special assistant said he was deeply saddened by the unexpected deaths of six persons of a family and appealed to citizens to exercise caution while using gas heaters in winters.
Last week, the Rawalpindi district administration decided to launch a massive campaign to raise awareness of the rising incidents caused by gas leaks.
The local administration in collaboration with Rescue 1122 and the Civil Defence launched the awareness campaign concerning gas leak hazards. During the winter, dozens of gas leak explosions occur in homes, shops and hotels due to human negligence.
The awareness drive aimed at informing people about the preventive measures to avoid the loss of life and property due to gas leakage and explosion.
Earlier in December, at least 15 people were killed and 16 others injured when a powerful gas explosion tore through the premises of a private bank in Karachi’s Shershah area.
