KARACHI: A shell of a rocket launcher accidentally exploded at a home in a remote village in southern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least eight people, including women and children, police said.
At least two people were also wounded in the blast in southern Sindh province, said regional police chief Rahil Khoso.
Investigators believe that family members took the unexploded shell home after finding it at a nearby open farm field. Such blasts often happen when people try to dismantle unexploded ammunition to sell as scrap metal.
Kashmore-Kandhkot Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rohil Khosa said children found a rocket shell while playing on the ground and brought it home where it exploded, killing eight people, including four children, two women, and a man, of the same family.
The SSP said the police had reached the site and further investigation was underway and an "emergency" had been declared at the Kandhkot Civil Hospital.
Sindh Chief Minister Justice Maqbool Baqar has sought a report from the provincial inspector general on how a rocket launcher reached the Zangi Subzwai Goth village in Kashmore district's Kandhkot tehsil of the province, Dawn News reported.
The city of Kandhkot, where the explosion took place, is known as a hideout of robbers and criminals who are well-armed, including with rockets. Security forces have launched operations against criminals in the area.
(with inputs from PTI)