A private passenger bus caught fire on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway on Tuesday evening, forcing passengers to evacuate and prompting police to temporarily stop vehicles near the incident. No deaths or injuries had been reported in the information available from the incident site at the time of the report.
The fire was reported near Sector 150, close to Safipur village, within the jurisdiction of Knowledge Park police station in Greater Noida. The bus was travelling from Noida towards Agra when flames broke out. According to the report, passengers were alerted after pedestrians noticed the fire and informed the driver.
The driver stopped the bus on the roadside, allowing all occupants to get off. Passers-by also helped passengers move away from the vehicle before the fire intensified. Videos of the incident showed flames rising above the bus along with a large plume of smoke.
Information from the report describes the vehicle as a double-decker bus in parts of the account and as a sleeper bus in another section. The fire service and Knowledge Park police were informed after the evacuation, and fire tenders reached the location to begin firefighting operations.
The incident also disrupted traffic on the expressway. A burning fragment from the bus reportedly reached the opposite side of the road while vehicles were still moving through the area. Police then kept vehicles at a distance until the fire was brought under control, leaving traffic halted for some time and causing inconvenience to motorists.
The immediate response focused on preventing passengers and passing vehicles from coming close to the burning bus. The supplied report does not specify the cause of the fire, the number of passengers travelling on board, the extent of damage to the vehicle or whether any formal inspection had begun after the incident.
The fire comes after an earlier bus blaze reported in Greater Noida on September 24, in which nine people died, according to the source report. Following that incident, authorities had decided to inspect double-decker buses. The latest fire has again brought attention to the safety of private passenger buses operating on the expressway, although the supplied information does not establish whether the two incidents were connected.
Police and fire-service personnel remained involved in the response at the scene. Further details on the cause of the fire, the vehicle’s operating documents and any regulatory action were not available in the report.
