By IANS,
Kurukshetra (Haryana) : The greed of a few villagers to steal automobile fuel from an over-turned tanker Thursday left 14 of them with nursing severe burns, five of them seriously.
The tanker was set on fire by one villager, Ranbir Singh, who had a heated argument with another villager near here over who should steal oil from the tanker first.
As both men fought, Singh pulled out a matchbox and threw it on the oil that had spilled on the ground near the tanker.
Within seconds, all people around the tanker, including Singh himself, were engulfed in fire as the tanker caught fire.
Three of the seriously injured people were rushed to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) at Chandigarh, 100 km from here.
The other injured were admitted to the district hospital here.
The police officials here said that a case had been registered against Singh for endangering the lives of others.
Most of those who received burns were milkmen who were passing on the road where the tanker overturned.
Eyewitnesses told the police that some of the milkmen emptied their milk containers to fill them up with the leaking automobile fuel.