GURUGRAM: Two passengers died and a dozen sustained serious burn injuries when a moving sleeper bus caught fire on the Jaipur-Delhi-Gurugram Expressway on Wednesday night, a senior police official said. The bus was gutted by the fire. The cause of the fire was not known immediately.
Five of the injured persons have been admitted to Medanta Hospital and seven to Civil Hospital in Gurugram, the official said. The Fire Department Deputy Director Gulshan Kalra said the incident took place around 8:30 pm near the Jharsa flyover on the main carriageway from Delhi to Jaipur, Rajasthan.
“Three fire tenders were rushed to the spot after we received information that a sleeper bus with registration number AR 01 K 7707 had caught fire on the carriageway,” Kalra said. By the time the fire was brought under control, two passengers were charred to death.
Some other passengers sustained burn injuries, Kalra said. Civil Hospital’s Dr Manav confirmed seven injured are undergoing treatment at the facility. “All injured have suffered 30 to 50 per cent burns but are stable,” Manav said.
After receiving information about the incident, Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav and Gurugram Police Commissioner Vikas Kumar Arora also reached the spot. Video footage from the scene showed the bus engulfed in flamesThe fire was so terrible that a plume of smoke was seen rising into the sky from a distance during the night.
The cause of the fire could not be immediately known. During the festival season, people are known to take to travelling by buses in large numbers. In case of not getting passenger tickets in train services, a large number of passengers take help of buses to commute as well as reach home.