10 burnt alive
Ten passengers were burnt alive and 30 others injured as a bus caught fire after a collision with an acid-laden truck on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Korpai under Burichong upazila yesterday.
Police and witnesses said the fatal accident took place when the Chittagong-bound Unique Paribahan bus from Dhaka collided head-on with a Dhaka-bound truck carrying acid containers from Chittagong at around 3:30pm.
Police quoted witnesses as saying that the collision occurred between the two vehicles as the driver of the truck suddenly took a right turn to save a female passer-by.
They said the bus caught fire as acid poured into it from broken containers. Five of the male passengers were burnt to death on the spot while 35 others injured.
The injured were admitted to Comilla Combined Military Hospital and Comilla Medical College Hospital (CMCH). Five of them died soon after admission to CMCH.
Condition of eight of the injured was stated to be critical. Identity of the victims could not be known as of 9:00pm yesterday.
On information, two fire-fighting units from the district town and Chandina upazila headquarters rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze.
Traffic on the busy highway remained suspended for about one and a half hours following the accident.
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