At least 25 dead after bus crash and fire in western India

A tyre blowout caused a bus to lose control and crash into a road divider before bursting into flames, killing at least 25 people in western India, police told local media.

Police officer Sunil Kadasne told the Press Trust of India news agency that 33 people were on the bus when the crash occurred around 1:30am (20:00 GMT) on Saturday morning on a highway in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra state. Eight survivors were taken to a hospital, he said. The bus was travelling from Nagpur to Pune on Samruddhi Mahamarg expressway when it crashed and its fuel tank caught fire, local police said.

The majority of deaths were caused due to burning, police said.

Maharashtra state’s Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted separate tweets expressing sorrow, and said they would pay support to each victim’s family, amounting to 700,000 Indian rupees ($8,500).

(Aljazeera)