Eight devotees were killed and dozens injured after their bus caught fire on the Kundali-Manesar-Palwal Expressway in Haryana on Friday night. The group, comprising over 60 family members from Punjab, was returning from a pilgrimage to Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh when the fire broke out near Nuh.
Survivors reported smelling smoke at the back of the bus around 1:30 am on Saturday. A motorcyclist noticed flames and pursued the bus, eventually catching up to warn the driver, who then stopped the vehicle.
"We had hired the bus for a 10-day pilgrimage to holy sites. We were returning home on Friday night when we smelled smoke while sleeping. The bus stopped after the motorcyclist alerted the driver," recounted one survivor.
Upon stopping, locals alerted the police and attempted to extinguish the fire and rescue the passengers. The fire brigade eventually arrived and extinguished the blaze, with the injured being transported to nearby hospitals.
Locals claimed that fire officials arrived three hours after the bus had completely burned down. "We ran behind the bus and broke windows to rescue as many people as possible before the fire became too intense. We informed the police, but they took too long to arrive," a local resident stated.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
