45 Passengers Escape Safely as Bus Catches Fire on Mumbai Highway in Gwalior

The evacuation was completed in under two minutes. (Representational)

Gwalior:

A terrifying incident unfolded late Monday night when a passenger bus carrying 45 individuals from Gurugram to Panna in Madhya Pradesh suddenly erupted in flames on the Mumbai Highway in Gwalior's Old Cantonment police station area.

The video coach, bearing registration number UP93 CT-6747, was completely destroyed within minutes, transformed into a charred skeleton. However, thanks to the quick thinking of the driver and vigilant passengers, everyone escaped without injuries.

According to police officials, the crisis began around midnight as the bus entered Gwalior after crossing the Morena district border. Most travelers, including women and children, were settling in for their overnight journey, with many already asleep.

Survivors described how an attentive passenger first noticed sparks emanating from either a rear tire or possibly an electrical wire while the vehicle traveled through the dimly-lit cantonment area.

Driver Anil Sharma, experienced with this route, responded with remarkable calm. He guided the bus to the roadside shoulder and applied the brakes just 200 meters from a fuel station—a location that could have amplified the disaster had the flames spread further.

"I knew we had seconds," Sharma later told reporters at the scene. "I yelled for everyone to exit from the rear door first."

In the ensuing coordinated rush, passengers grabbed whatever belongings they could—handbags, shawls, and some suitcases—before jumping out into the cool night air.

Though children were crying as parents protected them, the evacuation proceeded in an orderly fashion, with everyone safely outside within less than two minutes.

The flames, initially limited to the tire area, erupted ferociously afterward, but by then the bus was fortunately empty.

Fed by the vehicle's electrical system and potentially a short circuit in the wiring—a common cause in such incidents according to recent transport safety reports—the fire engulfed the cabin, melting seats and breaking windows.

Within 20 minutes, only smoke and twisted metal remained of the vehicle.

Police reported that numerous personal belongings, including clothing and electronic devices worth thousands of rupees, were destroyed in the fire, causing distress among the affected families.

Emergency responders from the Old Cantonment station arrived within 10 minutes, their sirens piercing the quiet of the historic area—once a British military outpost and now a busy transit hub.

Despite arriving promptly, the firefighters faced a fully developed blaze and spent over an hour extinguishing the wreckage, successfully preventing the fire from spreading to nearby roadside eateries.