Inferno after bus crash kills 42 in India

A bus has crashed into a highway barrier in southern India and erupted in flames, killing 42 passengers – many of them burned alive in the inferno, officials said.

By The Newsroom

Published 30th Oct 2013, 17:14 BST

The driver and six others managed to escape through a window, deputy police inspector general Naveen Kumar Chand said. The other passengers, apparently asleep at the time of the crash, were trapped inside.

The bus, operated by Jabbar Travels, had been travelling overnight from Bangalore to Hyderabad and was passing another vehicle when it crashed into the roadside barrier.

The diesel tank then caught fire, and flames engulfed the bus according to police.

Angry relatives gathered at both the Bangalore and Hyderabad offices of Jabbar Travels, forcing police to send officers to keep order. Police were also searching for the company’s owners in Bangalore, the main city in the neighbouring southern state of Karnataka.

India has the highest annual road death toll in the world, with more than 110,000 people killed every year in road accidents.

India Police