25 charred to death in mishap
Twenty-five were charred to death and nearly 44 seriously injured when the bus in which they were travelling rammed into a truck and caught fire late on Friday night.
Official sources, however, put the death toll at 25 but eyewitnesses said the toll was much higher.
The Uttar Pradesh government has announced a compensation of `1 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and `50,000 for the injured persons.
The incident took place at around 11 pm on Friday night in Tilwarai in Bahraich district.
The 54-seater bus, carrying more than 60 pilgrims, was returning from the Ghazi Miyan ki dargah in Bahraich after a religious congregation and was on its way to Ajmer Sharif when the accident took place.
According to eyewitnesses, the bus driver swerved to the right side of the road in trying to save an autorickshaw and rammed straight into a truck that was parked there.
So great was the impact of the collision that a LPG cylinder kept in the bus exploded and within seconds the bus turned into a ball of fire. Some children and women tried escaping by jumping out of the window but most passengers got trapped inside. Rescuers had to use gas cutters to cut open the twisted metal of the bus and pull out bodies and survivors from inside the vehicle.
What added to the magnitude of the tragedy was the fact that rescue operations were seriously hampered due to the inefficiency of the local administration.
The fire tenders that were called in to douse the flames ran out of water and senior officials reached the site of the accident after more than two hours. The security staff of a nearby sugar mill closed the gates when the locals rushed there to get water supply. It was only after prolonged arguments that the sugar mill staff allowed the local people to take water for putting out the fire.
Later, the angry mob blocked the highway to protest against the delay in the arrival of administrative help. The injured passengers were taken to hospital with the help of local people and the five ambulances arrived much later.
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