Six passengers were burnt to death on Wednesday after a tourist bus they were travelling in caught fire in Chitradurga district of Karnataka.
The tourist bus, en route to Bangalore from Davangere district, caught fire in Chitradurga during the wee hours of Wednesday, according to survivors.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Parashivamurthy, who inspected the accident site, confirmed the death of six people.
"Six people were charred to death and three people are admitted to Davangere hospital, 10 people to Hiriyur hospital and two in Chitradurga. And three people who are admitted to Davangere hospital are females and are supposed to be serious," he said.
He added that the cause of the fire is not known. He also said that identification of the dead bodies is difficult as they are completely charred.
A survivor, Kashinath, who was in a state of shock, could not recall how he managed to escape the fire.
"I don't know how it caught fire, I was sleeping. When I turned back, the rear end of bus was burning. It was a sleeping coach bus. The bus caught fire around 3 in the morning near Hiriyur. I don't remember how I managed get out.
The bus driver, according to Parashivamurthy, panicked as soon as he found the bus was on fire and he rammed the bus into the road median.
In October last year, 42 passengers were charred to death in a similar fire accident in a bus bound towards Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh from Bangalore.
