12 charred to death as bus falls into pit

Patna: More than 12 persons were charred to death after a luxury bus from Muzaffarpur to New Delhi overturned into a pit and caught fire in Bihar’s Motihari on Thursday.

The administrative officials probing the incident said that 32 passengers had booked their tickets, 12 passengers boarded the bus from Muzaffarpur while 17 others had their booking from Gopalganj.  

The death toll, however, may rise as eyewitnesses claim that some local people may have caught in the accident as the bus overturned into a pit. A survivor Vinod Kumar told reporters that over 30 passengers were on the bus when the incident occurred.

“I was trying to sleep when the incident occurred. The situation inside was very scary as the bus had caught fire I somehow managed to break the glass and jumped out. Around 30 passengers were inside the bus at the time of the accident”, the survivor Vinod Kumar told reporters.

Sources from Motihari claimed that five persons were rescued by local public. Later on at least seven others were pulled out from the wreckage and sent to the hospital for treatment.

The private long-distance bus service belonged to Sahil Raj Travel Company and it was registered in Uttar Pradesh.

The incident occurred at a time when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was attending an event organised by the transport department to create awareness about road safety.

A compensation of `4 lakh each was also announced by the state government for families of those who died in the accident.

According to Bihar disaster management department minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav, a probe has been launched to find out the real cause of the incident.