India bus fire kills at least 25, injures eight

Early on Saturday morning, a catastrophic bus crash resulted in the deaths of at least 25. Others are injured.

 A bus in flames (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
A bus in flames
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

A bus crashed and burst into flames killing at least 25 people in India's western state of Maharashtra in the early hours of Saturday, police and officials said.

"The bus was travelling from Nagpur to Pune when at around 1:35 am it met with an accident on Samruddhi Mahamarg expressway, after which the diesel tank of the bus caught fire," local police told Reuters TV partner ANI.

The general cause of death

"The majority of deaths were caused due to burning."

Twenty-five people were killed and eight were injured, Maharashtra's deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a post on Twitter.

 The Maharashtra region in India (credit: Store norske leksikon)
The Maharashtra region in India (credit: Store norske leksikon)

The state's Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted separate tweets expressing sorrow, and said they would pay support to each victim's family, amounting to 700,000 Indian rupees ($8,500).