At least 20 people were killed and six others injured after a passenger bus collided with an oil tanker and caught fire near the Jalalpur Pirwala district of Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, local media reported.

According to the reports, the accident occurred on a motorway in the wee hours of Tuesday. Both vehicles caught fire following the collision, resulting in the death of 18 passengers.

Afterward, motorway police and rescue teams reached the site and started the rescue operation, local media said.

Eight injured people were rescued and taken to a hospital, where two succumbed to their wounds during treatment, local media said, adding that the bodies of the 18 deceased people have been recovered from the wreckage of the bus.

Rescue workers told the media that 26 people, including a driver and a conductor, were traveling on the bus from Punjab's capital city Lahore to the country's southern port city of Karachi.

(With input from Xinhua)