Greater Noida, Sept 24: At least nine people lost their lives and several others sustained injuries after a sleeper tourist bus carrying over 34 passengers caught fire on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida. The incident occurred in the Jewar area of Gautam Buddh Nagar district as the vehicle was travelling from Delhi towards Mahoba.
Most of the passengers were asleep when the blaze erupted around 11 pm. Upon receiving information, fire services deployed eight to ten fire tenders to the scene, where emergency personnel worked through the night to douse the flames and assist trapped passengers.
Preliminary inquiries by the police suggest that a short circuit in the air-conditioning unit may have triggered the fire, though the official cause remains under investigation. Authorities confirmed that the driver and conductor of the bus have been taken into custody, with Jewar police registering a case under legal provisions relating to culpable homicide.
Survivors described chaotic scenes inside the vehicle, noting that thick smoke severely restricted visibility and caused suffocation. Eyewitness accounts indicated that passengers scrambled to reach the exit doors as the cabin filled with smoke, with only those able to make their way through the commotion managing to escape.
