Over 42 charred to death in Dhaka bus accident

Nearly 60 people are feared to have burnt to death when the cylinder of a gas-run bus exploded.

Nearly 60 people are feared to have burnt to death on Saturday when the cylinder of a gas-run bus carrying 75 passengers exploded after it fell into a ditch in southeastern Bangladesh.

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Police and fire brigade rescuers said they recovered 42 bodies while several others were feared to have burnt almost to ashes.

Police and witnesses said the fire engulfed the bus as it skidded into the roadside ditch near Comilla city while trying to save a three-wheeler auto rickshaw.

The victims died almost instantly as the fire quickly engulfed the vehicle after the blast, a police official at the scene said, adding that the survivors, most of whom had suffered severe burn injuries, were sent to local health facilities.

Television channels showed that most of the bodies were burnt beyond identification as wailing relatives crowding the spot were struggling to recognise the victims, who were mostly day labourers returning to the southeastern port city of Chittagong from Dhaka after the Eid-al-Azha festival.

President Iajuddin Ahmed mourned the deaths and ordered for an intensified salvage operation and proper treatment of the injured.