Bus inferno in India kills 45 passengers

In a ghastly incident, 45 passengers travelling by a private luxury bus in southern India were burned alive when the air-conditioned coach burst into a ball of fire after hitting a culvert near Palem in Mahabubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh state, early Wednesday morning.
The Hyderabad-bound Volvo bus from Bengaluru was carrying 50 passengers against its capacity of 43, besides the driver and a cleaner. The bus caught fire after it hit a culvert around 5.20 a.m., just 150 km away from Hyderabad.
Barring five passengers including the driver and cleaner who managed to escape the horrific accident with injuries, the rest were roasted alive, with their charred skeletal remains making the task of identification almost impossible.
While the five survivors were shifted to DRDO Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad, the driver and the cleaner are in police custody and are being questioned on the cause of the accident. The diesel tank of the bus exploded into flames when the vehicle hit the culvert, and within minutes, the fire engulfed the entire bus, giving little chance to the passengers who were asleep to escape, Mahabubnagar District Superintendent of Police D Nagendra Kumar said.
Some of the passengers were techies working in the IT sector in Bengaluru and were returning to Hyderabad for Diwali celebrations which is over the weekend.
Transport Minister Botsa Satyanarayana told mediapersons that the bus, registered in Anantapur district in the name of Diwaker Roadlines, had been given on lease to Jabbar Travels. The police have detained the manager of Jabbar Travels in Hyderabad and took him to Mahabubnagar for questioning since there were discrepancies in the passenger list. People from nearby village said the bus was reduced to ashes within minutes.