Bengaluru: In a tragic incident, 44 passengers of a Volvo bus were feared dead after the bus caught fire in Mahabubnagar in Andhra Pradesh early on Wednesday.
The A/C bus owned by Jabbar travels, heading to Hyderabad from Bengaluru, went up in flames at around 5.10 am, when the driver tried to overtake another vehicle and hit the fuel tank to a culvert.
Suddenly the entire vehicle got engulfed in the blaze, police said.
The bus was reportedly carrying 49 passengers, most of whom were going home for Deepavali festival and started from Bengaluru 11 Tuesday night.
Reports said most of the passengers were asleep when the bus caught fire. Only few could escape as they were unable to break the glass open.
The driver along with cleaner and five other passengers managed to escape, police said quoting eyewitnesses.
“It seems the bus was travelling at a high speed when its fuel tank hit the roadside culvert and caught fire. There are some causalities feared as the entire bus has been gutted,” a senior police officer told PTI. They are ascertaining the exact number of casualties, he added.
The injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital, latest reports said. Kothakota police were further investigating the case and senior police officers have rushed to the spot.
