60 passengers escape unhurt after bus catches fire in MP

After smoke started billowing, all the passengers quickly got down from the bus and no one suffered any burn injury, the official said.

Nearly 60 passengers of a bus had a narrow escape after the vehicle caught fire on a highway in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place around 10 pm on Wednesday when the bus was going to Hyderabad from Bhopal.

The bus was on the National Highway No. 69, about 25 km from the district headquarters, when it caught fire, Shahpur police station's inspector Shivnarayan Mukati told PTI. After smoke started billowing, all the passengers quickly got down from the bus and no one suffered any burn injury, the official said. The bus and passenger luggage were, however, gutted, he said, adding that a fire tanker later doused the blaze.

A probe was on to ascertain the cause of the fire, he said.