A passenger bus erupted into flames after a motorcycle crashed into it early Friday, killing at least 25 people and injuring several others in southern India, police said.
The fire tore through the bus within minutes, trapping dozens of passengers as it sped along a highway near Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh state, senior police official Vikrant Patil said.
Some managed to smash open windows and leap to safety with minor injuries while others were charred to death before help could arrive, Patil said.
The bus with 44 passengers aboard was traveling between the cities of Hyderabad in Telangana state and Bengaluru in Karnataka state. The accident occurred in Chinnatekuru village near Kurnool, around 210 kilometers (130 miles) south of Hyderabad, The Associated Press reported.
The motorcycle rammed into the speeding bus from behind and got stuck, Patil said. It was dragged for some distance, causing sparks that engulfed the bus's fuel tank.
“As the smoke started spreading, the driver stopped the bus and tried to put the fire out by using a fire extinguisher, but the fire was so intense he couldn’t control it,” Patil said.
Most passengers were asleep at the time of the accident. The bus was gutted and the unidentified bike rider also died, he said.
A team of forensic experts was investigating the incident.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh’s highest elected official, N. Chandrababu Naidu, offered their condolences to the bereaved families.
The deadly bus fire was the second such accident in India in less than two weeks. A suspected short circuit sparked a fire on a passenger bus in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan early this month, rapidly engulfing the vehicle in flames and killing at least 20 people.
