Hundreds of mobile phones on board a passenger bus that collided with a motorcycle in India intensified a deadly fire in which at least 20 people died, reports said.
Around 40 passengers were travelling in a bus plying between Hyderabad in Telangana state and Bengaluru in Karnataka state on 24 October when the vehicle collided with a motorcycle whose ruptured fuel tank caused a deadly fire.
Forensic experts have now revealed that the bus was carrying a consignment of 234 mobile phones from a businessman. The lithium-ion batteries of the smartphones intensified the fire after the collision, according to Kurnool superintendent of police Vikrant Patel.
The accident occurred in Chinnatekuru village near Kurnool, around 210km (130 miles) south of Hyderabad.
A businessman from Hyderabad had sent the mobile phones worth Rs 4.6m (£39,361) to be delivered to a warehouse of an e-commerce website in Bengaluru.
“The bus batteries, presence of flammable furnishings in the bus, and the cargo consisting of cell phones aggravated the fire leading to the tragic event,” he said, according to News18.
Eyewitnesses said they heard sounds of exploding batteries as the fire engulfed the bus.
Matters worsened after the electrical batteries used for the air conditioning system of the bus also caught fire and exploded, P Venkataraman, the director-general of the Andhra Pradesh Fire Services Department, said.
Mr Venkataraman said the intense heat melted the aluminium sheets on the bus floor.
He added that the fire is believed to have originated in the front section of the bus due to the fuel leak. The motorcycle had lodged beneath the vehicle, and the spilt petrol, likely ignited by heat or a spark, triggered the blaze that rapidly engulfed the entire bus.
Most passengers were asleep at the time of the accident. The bus was gutted and the unidentified bike rider also died, he said.
Prime minister Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, expressed sorrow over the incident and condoled the deaths.
Bus incidents are common in India as private operators often ignore safety rules and overcrowd buses.
Earlier this month, at least 20 people were killed after a bus caught fire in the northern Rajasthan state. It is believed that a short circuit sparked the fire on the bus travelling between the towns of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.
