Tirupati

All22 people aboard a Bengaluru-bound sleeper bus were safely evacuated after the vehicle caught fire near here in this district on Thursday, police said.

The bus, carrying 19 passengers and three staff members, was travelling from Repalle in Bapatla district to Bengaluru when the incident occurred.

“The Bengaluru-bound private sleeper bus travelling from Repalle in Bapatla district caught fire near Ojili, but all 22 people on board, 19 passengers and three staff members, were safely evacuated and nobody was injured,” an official said.

The bus, operated by a private travel company based in Ongole, had started from Repalle at around 6 pm on Wednesday.

When the bus reached Ojili, the driver noticed smoke and a burning smell coming from the engine at the front of the vehicle, the official said. He immediately alerted everyone and evacuated all the passengers and staff. All 19 passengers and three staff members got down safely and removed their luggage before the bus caught fire. The flames quickly spread through the vehicle, which had been parked on the side of the road. “We reached the spot with a fire engine, managed the traffic and brought the flames under control. Nobody was injured, and only the bus was burnt,” he said. The bus was suspected to have caught fire due to a short circuit, he said, adding that officials inspected the spot to assess the incident.(PTI)