Fire erupts in Pakistan's ship-breaking yard, several feared trapped

ISLAMABAD - At least 15 laborers were feared to be trapped inside a ship-breaking yard which caught fire in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Monday, local media reported.

The fire erupted when the laborers were dismantling an oil tanker ship at the Gadani ship-breaking yard, Dawn News reported.

Police said that some welding work was going on at the ship when the fire erupted.

Gadani ship-breaking yard is notorious for its unsafe working conditions and such incidents often happens there.

In November 2016, at least 18 laborers were killed when fire erupted at an oil tanker ship at the yard.

Located 45 km northwest of Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, the Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest yard of the kind. It consists of 132 ship-breaking plots located across a 10-km long beachfront at Gadani.