Local authorities have revealed that at least 25 persons have been reported dead after after a bus caught fire overnight on an expressway in western India.
According to AFP, senior police officer Baburao Mahamuni said that the bus was travelling to the city of Pune when it hit a pole and overturned after midnight, causing its diesel tank to catch fire.
“There were about 30-35 people on the bus. Twenty-five people have died and eight others are injured,” he said.
A medical center close to the disaster site in Maharashtra state, around 250 miles (400 kilometres) east of India’s financial centre Mumbai, has admitted the injured, including the bus driver.
Also police stated they had launched an inquiry into the crash.
“The priority at this moment is to identify the bodies and hand them over to their family members,” local media quoted police superintendent Sunil Kadasane as saying.
