A Pakistan army soldier stands guards while rescue workers examine the site of an oil tanker explosion at a highway near Bahawalpur, Pakistan, Sunday, June 25, 2017. An overturned oil tanker burst into... (Associated Press) 
 
 BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan (AP) — An overturned oil tanker burst into flames in Pakistan on Sunday, killing 153 people who had rushed to the scene of the highway accident to gather leaking fuel, a hospital official said as the death toll continued to rise. 
 
 Dr. Javed Iqbal at Bahawalpur's Victoria Hospital in south Punjab said the latest deaths occurred at a hospital in Multan where some of the 50 critically injured, many of whom suffered extensive burns, had been taken. 
 
 The death toll could rise further as dozens are still in critical condition, said Dr. Mohammad Baqar, a senior rescue official in the area. There were dozens of other injuries of varying degree, he said. 
 
 Local news channels showed black smoke billowing skyward and scores of burned bodies, as well as rescue officials speeding the injured to hospital and army helicopters ferrying the wounded. 
 
 Saznoor Ahmad, 30, whose two cousins were killed in the fire, said the crowd of people screamed as the flames engulfed them. 
 
 "The fire moved so fast," he said. When the flames subsided the field was strewn with bodies, and nearby were the charred shells of motorcycles and cars that the villagers had used to race to the scene. 
 
 As the wounded cried out for help, residents wandered through the area looking for loved ones. 
 
 Zulkha Bibi was searching for her two sons. 
 
 "Someone should tell me about my beloved sons, where are they? Are they alive or are they no longer in this world? Please tell me," she pleaded. 
 
 The disaster came on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. While Saudi Arabia and most other Muslim countries celebrated the holiday Sunday, Pakistanis will mark it on Monday. 
 
 The tanker was driving from the southern port city of Karachi to Lahore, the Punjab provincial capital, when the driver lost control and crashed on the national highway outside Bahawalpur. 
 
 A loudspeaker atop a local mosque alerted villagers to the leaking fuel, and scores raced to the site with jerry cans, said Rana Mohammad Salim, deputy commissioner of Bahawalpur. 
 
 Highway police moved quickly to redirect traffic but couldn't stop the scores of villagers who raced to collect the fuel, spokesman Imran Shah told a local TV channel. 
 
 When the fire erupted, the same mosque loudspeaker called on the remaining villagers to help put it out. 
 
 Mohammed Salim ran toward the smoke carrying buckets of water and sand, but said the heat was too intense to reach those in need. 
 
 "I could hear people screaming but I couldn't get to them," he said. 
 
 Abdul Malik, a local police officer who was also among the first to arrive, described a "horrible scene." 
 
 "I have never seen anything like it in my life. Victims trapped in the fireball. They were screaming for help," he said. 
 
 When the fire subsided, "we saw bodies everywhere, so many were just skeletons. The people who were alive were in really bad shape," he said. 
 
 Eyewitnesses said about 30 motorcycles that had carried villagers to the accident site lay charred nearby. Eight other vehicles were destroyed, they said. 
 
 A state of emergency was declared at the Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur, said Dr.Iqbal. Within 15 minutes of the fire the hospital had called in extra doctors and nurses, and had formed a team to handle the emergency. 
 
 Iqbal said most of the patients suffered burns to upward of 80 percent of their bodies. After being stabilized 22 patients were transferred by C-130 aircraft to hospitals in the provincial capital, Lahore. Some of the most badly burned were evacuated by army helicopters to Multan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. 
 
 The dead included men, women and children. Many were burned beyond recognition, Baqar said, and will have to be identified using DNA testing. ||||| At Least 150 People Killed After Oil Truck Catches Fire In Pakistan 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption STR/AFP/Getty Images STR/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Updated at 8:20 a.m. ET 
 
 At least 150 people who had gathered to collect fuel from an overturned tanker truck in Pakistan were killed when it caught fire Sunday, according to The Associated Press. 
 
 More than 100 people were injured, many with severe burns. 
 
 "Authorities say most of the bodies are burnt beyond recognition and the death toll is likely to rise," reporter Abdul Sattar in Islamabad reports for NPR. "Children and women are among the injured." 
 
 The oil tanker was traveling to the city of Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province when one of the tires burst, causing it to overturn outside of the city of Bahawalpur. Hundreds of people gathered around it, trying to collect the oil after it began leaking. 
 
 "People living in roadside villages, carrying domestic pots rushed to the scene to collect oil and they also made phone calls to their relatives living in other villages to immediate[ly] come to collect oil," police told Pakistan's state-run APP news. 
 
 They told the APP that police tried to prevent people from collecting oil, warning of the fire hazard, but the crowds ignored the warnings. 
 
 "According to the initial reports, somebody tried to light a cigarette, and when the spilt fuel caught fire, leading to the tanker's explosion," rescue worker spokesman Jam Sajjad Hussain told Reuters. 
 
 "Suddenly, huge fire erupted in the oil tanker which engulfed all people standing around the vehicle," police told the APP. They said the tanker was carrying about 6,600 gallons of oil. 
 
 "At least three cars and more than 70 motorcycles were also destroyed in the flames," Sattar reports. 
 
 Dozens of people are being treated in hospitals; several people were airlifted by helicopter. DNA testing may be required to identify some of the victims, according to the BBC. 
 
 It took firefighters more than two hours to put out the fire, Reuters reports. 
 
 Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been in London, is "immediately" returning to Pakistan to respond to the incident, the APP reports. He "has expressed deep grief over the heavy loss of life in the unfortunate accident of oil tanker fire at Ahmad Pur Sharqia, Bahawalpur," he said in a statement from his office to Reuters.
– It was a simple highway accident: A tanker blows a tire, and overturns. But it overturned Sunday in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, carrying 6,600 gallons of oil, and surrounding villagers " carrying domestic pots rushed to the scene to collect oil and they also made phone calls to their relatives living in other villages to ... come to collect oil" police told state-run media, per NPR. According to a rescuer, "somebody tried to light a cigarette," which caught fire, exploded the tanker, and "engulfed all people standing around the vehicle," reports the AP. At least 153 are dead, a toll expected to rise as dozens more remain critically injured. "The fire moved so fast," said one survivor who lost two cousins. Others describe an unbearable scene: "I could hear people screaming but I couldn't get to them," says one would-be rescuer, while a cop says that "I have never seen anything like it in my life. Victims trapped in the fireball. They were screaming for help." A local doctor says most victims suffered burns on 80% of their bodies, while another says that many of the dead were burned beyond recognition and will have to be identified via DNA testing.