In a statement on Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi offered his condolences to the government and people of the brotherly neighbor, Pakistan, over the deadly Punjab train fire.

He also expressed sympathy to the bereaved families of the victims of the incident and wished a speedy recovery for those injured in the tragic event.

At least 74 people were killed and dozens injured after cooking gas cylinders exploded on a train packed with pilgrims in Pakistan on Thursday, some dying after leaping from carriages to escape the inferno, authorities said.

Television footage showed flames pouring out of three carriages as people could be heard crying during the incident, in a rural area of central Punjab province

In July, at least 23 people were killed in the same district when a passenger train coming from the eastern city of Lahore rammed into a freight train that had stopped at a crossing.

Some of the passengers — many of whom were pilgrims travelling to one of Pakistan’s biggest religious gatherings — had been cooking breakfast when two of their gas cylinders exploded, Ali Nawaz, a senior Pakistan Railways official, told AFP.

Many Pakistanis carry food on long train journeys, but gas cylinders are supposedly banned. Pakistan’s railways minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed later told reporters that it had been a “mistake” to allow the cylinders on board.

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