Hubballi: Three passengers were burnt to death and nine others injured as a non-AC sleeper tourist bus of Durgamba Travels caught fire at Varur on the National Highway-4, near here, early on Wednesday morning.

The accident occurred at 5.30 am when the bus was on its way to the last destination of Dharwad, which is just 35 km away from the spot. The bus had started from Bengaluru at 9.30 pm on Tuesday with more than 30 passengers on board. Though short-circuit is said to be the reason for the tragic incident, officials of the transport and police departments are continuing with the investigations.

The bodies of the three were so charred that the police officials had a tough time establishing their identities. Two of them were sleeping in the rear of the bus, while one was just behind the driver's seat. There were 15 passengers and three crew members, including two drivers and one cleaner, in the bus when the tragedy occurred.

The injured claimed that the bus caught fire from the rear where the luggage was stored. Liquor and cigarettes were found in the remains of the charred bus. But SP Dharmendra Kumar Meena, who visited the spot, said that the substances have been sent to the forensic lab to confirm whether they were flammable.
Of the 30 passengers who had boarded the bus in Bengaluru, many had got down at various locations, including Davangere, Haveri and Shiggaon well before the accident.

The injured are undergoing treatment at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). Three passengers were shifted to KLE Hospital in Belagavi as they have sustained serious injuries.

In November 2013, a similar bus fire tragedy on the National Highway-4 near Haveri had claimed the lives of seven people, raising questions over safety measures being adopted by travel companies.

The proprietor of the company and legislator, Mr Zameer Ahmed Khan, had blamed the Volvo company alleging that technical problem in the bus had led to the fire.

Later, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had dispatched a four-member team of National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure (NATRiP) to conduct a probe. The team had claimed that the probe is complicated as the bus had caught fire after it brushed past a cement railing for 150 metres.