Nine passengers died when a sleeper bus caught fire on the Yamuna Expressway near Jewar in Greater Noida late Wednesday night, police said Thursday.
The fire broke out near the 33-kilometre milestone in Jewar police station area when the bus was on its way from Delhi to Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh with some 35 passengers on board, the Press Trust of India reported.
Nine victims were discovered inside the bus after firefighters extinguished the fire and more than 20 passengers were rescued. PTI reported that police believed burns or suffocation to be the cause of the deaths.
Chief Fire Officer Pradeep Kumar said a preliminary investigation suggested that a spark or blast in the bus’s air-conditioning system may have ignited the engine lubricant oil, causing the fire to spread rapidly.
“On receiving information, police officials along with local police personnel, a rescue tender, a fire tender stationed at the Jewar toll plaza and four other fire tenders immediately reached the spot and doused the fire,” Kumar said, according to PTI.
Police has registered a case and taken into custody the driver and conductor. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
