Mahbubnagar: Forty-five passengers were feared dead when a private Volvo bus from Bangalore to Hyderabad caught fire on the Mahbubngar national highway-44 during early hours on Wednesday. Among those who died in the Volvo bus accident in Mahbubnagar, five were engineers working for IBM and other software companies in Bangalore. However, the police have confirmed 45 deaths. All the bodies were retrieved by the police and revenue officials. Among those who died were two infants, aged one-and-a-half and two years.
"Charred bodies of 45 persons have been retrieved from the bus so far and efforts are underway to locate more bodies, if any," a police official said. Four other passengers including the driver Feroze Khan and a cleaner managed to escape in the incident in the district, which is 100 kms from Hyderabad. The incident occurred at 5:10 am when the diesel tank of the Hyderabad-bound bus from Bangalore hit against a culvert near Palem, police said, adding, the entire bus was engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. The bus carrying 49 passengers started from Bangalore at 11 pm last night. Among the passengers were some software engineers who were going to Hyderabad to celebrate Diwali with their families.
"It seems the bus was travelling at a high speed when its fuel tank hit the roadside culvert and caught fire. The passengers in the bus were burnt beyond recognition. The entire bus has been gutted," another senior police officer said, adding they were collecting the list of passengers who had boarded the bus last night. Initial reports said that the central locking system of the luxury bus jammed preventing people from getting out of the door and windows. Forensic experts and senior police and district officials were engaged in removing the bodies from the bus.
According to the cleaner of the bus, most of the passengers were sleeping when the mishap took place. The cleaner, who has been admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad, said he was pulled out of the burning bus by the driver of a car passing through the area. Meanwhile, worried relatives rushed to the office of the bus operator in Lakdi Ka Pul area in Hyderabad to collect information about their relatives.
