Early on Saturday, in the early hours, a tourist bus carrying nine devotees — among them a ten-year-old girl—went up in flames on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway in Nuh, Haryana, leaving fourteen others with burn injuries.
The bus, which was carrying about sixty tourists, caught fire at two in the morning while traveling from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, to Hoshiarpur, Punjab, according to the police. Three men and six women were admitted to the hospital with severe burn injuries and were pronounced dead. The injured were declared safe by the police after being taken to Nalhar Medical College in Nuh for treatment.
One of the injured people informed the reporters that they were able to escape through the windows since the bus’s doors jammed following the fire. “All of a sudden, I heard cries that the bus was on fire. We bolted for the doors, only to find them stuck. The injured woman claimed, “We then managed to get out through the windows.”
Sunita, another victim, said that the bus was hired by her uncle and they had been to Ayodhya, Prayagraj, and Banaras before it reached Mathura. And now they were on their way back home to Punjab when the accident happened.
“The bus was filled with smoke which caused asphyxiation. Everyone was trying to save their life. No one could make out what had happened,” said Sunita.
