Seven workers sustained severe burn injuries after a non-functional ship caught fire in Gadani ship-breaking yard, Pakistan, on Sunday. Three of the inured men are considered to be in critical situation.
According to local media, the incident took place while cutting steel inside the oil tanker. The injured were taken to Karachi for medical treatment and a firefighting operation is underway.
Pollutant and dangerous scrapping has been a key area of concern for Pakistani ship recycling industry with no measures for pollution prevention and workers’ health and safety being ‘blatantly ignored’, according to NGO Shipbreaking platform.
The highlight of the shipyard’s heavy history is the explosion of the Aces tanker on 1 November 2016, which claimed lives of 31 workers and serious injury of at least another 58 workers. In the beginning of 2017, five workers lost their lives in another explosion of a tanker in the shipyard.
In response, the breaking of tankers and LPG carriers was banned at Gadani in February 2017.
