NEW DELHI: More than 40 passengers escaped unhurt after a bus caught fire on the Ranchi-Lohardaga highway on Saturday evening, news agency PTI reported. The incident occurred when the vehicle, travelling from Ranchi to Chatra, suddenly went up in flames near Mandar Bazar.”There were nearly 45 passengers on the bus, which suddenly caught fire near Mandar Bazar,” Manoj Karmali, the officer-in-charge of the Mandar police station, told PTI.”Fortunately, the bus was stopped in time and the passengers were brought out safely. A fire tender arrived shortly, but by then, local shopkeepers had doused the flame. None of the passengers suffered any injury, nor any major damage was caused to goods,” he said.Karmali said the fire is suspected to have started due to a short circuit near the battery box and spread because of chemical solutions kept in the bus.”The bus has been kept in the police station compound, while an alternative arrangement was made to take the passengers to their destination,” Karmali said.Police said the bus owner has been summoned and will be questioned regarding missing safety measures, including fire extinguishers.A day earlier, 20 people were killed in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district when a Bengaluru-bound private bus caught fire after colliding with a two-wheeler.
