At least 18 people were killed and 21 injured when a boiler exploded at a glue-making factory in Faisalabad, eastern Pakistan, according to a later official casualty count. The blast destroyed the factory, damaged homes nearby and started a large fire in the surrounding residential area.
The explosion occurred at about 5 a.m. in Faisalabad’s Malikpur neighbourhood, west of Lahore in Punjab province. Its force collapsed structures and scattered debris into nearby streets. Residents initially struggled to determine what had happened as flames and heavy smoke rose from the site, while rescue teams and ambulances began searching the rubble for bodies and survivors.
Several injured people were reported to be in critical condition. Earlier reporting, issued before the toll increased, counted 16 deaths and seven injuries and said most of those killed were residents of adjoining homes, including six children. The later figure of 18 dead and 21 injured reflected the changing assessment as the rescue operation continued. Officials had not established in the supplied evidence how many of the final casualties were factory workers and how many lived nearby.
Police arrested the factory manager and were seeking the owner, who authorities said left after the explosion. Punjab police chief Usman Anwar said the cause was not immediately established. Investigators later identified a gas leak as a possible cause, while a preliminary local account placed the leak inside a chemical warehouse at the factory.
Local administrator Raja Jahangir said investigators were also examining how construction permission had been obtained for an industrial facility in a residential district, contrary to building rules. That inquiry widened the response from determining the physical cause of the blast to considering whether regulatory failures had exposed neighbouring households to industrial hazards.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif offered condolences and instructed authorities to provide the best available medical care to those injured. Rescue personnel worked for hours amid collapsed walls and roofs, pulling people from debris after the factory was described as completely flattened.
Industrial explosions and fires have repeatedly raised concerns about workplace safeguards in Pakistan. The supplied reporting cited other recent incidents, including a boiler explosion at a Faisalabad textile mill in 2024 and a deadly firecracker-factory blast in Karachi shortly before the Malikpur disaster. The investigation in Faisalabad remained active, with the possible gas leak, legal status of the factory site and responsibility of its operators all still under examination. No final investigative finding had assigned responsibility by the end of the supplied accounts, and authorities had not said when the damaged residential area would be declared safe.
