Forty-five passengers, including a baby girl, were charred to death and seven others suffered burns when a private luxury bus burst into flames near Palem village here today.
“Charred bodies of 45 persons have been retrieved from the bus,” Deputy Inspector General (Hyderabad Range) V Naveen Chand told PTI.
The accident occurred shortly after 5 AM when the diesel tank of the Hyderabad-bound bus from Bangalore hit the railing above a culvert near Palem, around 130 km from Hyderabad on Bangalore-Hyderabad National Highway when its driver was trying to overtake a car, police said.
The whole bus was engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes.
“The rear right side of the bus (having the diesel tank) hit the median of the road causing sparks. Within seconds the tank caught fire and burst even as flames spread all over the bus,” they said.
Fifty-two persons, including 50 passengers, were travelling in the Volvo bus when the tragedy struck.
According to police, the bodies were charred beyond recognition. Four of the deceased were identified, they said, even as grieving relatives scoured bodies to find their dead.
Priyanka, daughter of a Judge of a special court handling cases under SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, also died in the incident, they said.
Five passengers, driver Feroze Pasha and cleaner Ayyaz, managed to escape with burn injuries and were undergoing treatment at different hospitals, another police officer said.
Mahbubnagar District Collector Girija Shankar and District SP D Nagendra Kumar, who were supervising the rescue operation said, “The identification of the deceased will be determined after conducting DNA tests and collecting blood samples of the relatives.
“The mortal remains will be handed over to the kin of the deceased after the DNA tests,” the Collector said.
Initial reports had said that some software engineers were among the victims in the bus that had started from Bangalore at 11 PM last night.