At least nine people were killed on Wednesday in India after a moving sleeper bus carrying about 30 passengers caught fire.
The incident took place around 11pm on the Noida Expressway in the national capital region when the double-decker bus was travelling from Kashmere Gate in Delhi to Mahoba in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The fire began after the bus covered a distance of 33km from a spark in the vehicle’s air-conditioning system that set the engine’s lubricating oil ablaze, said the police.
Within minutes, the blaze engulfed the bus, leaving passengers scrambling for life, with some jumping out of the moving vehicle to save their life.
A few passengers told the driver to stop as soon as they noticed the smell of something burning, said police officer Ajay Kumar Singh.
The driver, however, dismissed their concerns, saying that such a smell is common on buses, a passenger named Sunil Kumar told the police in his preliminary complaint, reported India Today.
The flames suddenly erupted under the driver’s seat and rapidly spread through the bus, with thick smoke engulfing the passenger area.
“By the time the driver stopped the vehicle, the fire broke out and quickly engulfed the vehicle. There were 35 passengers onboard. Nine people, including a woman, failed to escape,” Mr Singh said, reported the Hindustan Times.
Distressed to hear about the loss of lives due to a fire tragedy on a bus in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. Praying for the swift recovery of the injured.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) September 24, 2026
An ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin…
According to reports, the driver and conductor fled, while people at the scene helped some passengers evacuate.
A passenger who managed to escape told news agency ANI that many people were sleeping at the time when the fire broke out.
“I was sleeping when someone woke me up saying the bus had caught fire, and we all scrambled to get out. It was not an easy situation to escape, there was a lot of smoke. We somehow managed to get out. The bus was packed with passengers,” the passenger, not identified by the outlet, said.
A passenger, identified as Rinki, said the fire appeared to have started near the driver's seat. “It was on the front side, near the driver, where the driver sits,” she told India Today, adding that the smoke was so thick that people could barely see anything. “We were suffocating inside.”
While some managed to escape amid the chaos, there were many people behind her, she says, who “probably could not get out”.
The driver and conductor, identified by their first names, Pawan and Yogesh, were later arrested.
Prime minister Narendra Modi, and state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed their condolences and each announced an ex-gratia of Rs 200,000 for the deceased persons family and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
“Distressed to hear about the loss of lives due to a fire tragedy on a bus in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. Praying for the swift recovery of the injured,” the prime minister’s office wrote on X.
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