Drivers of a bus and a lorry were charred to death, while 48 passengers in the bus had a miraculous escape, when the vehicles caught fire after a collision on the outskirts of Coimbatore early Monday morning.
The bus was coming from Pathanamthitta in Kerala and the lorry laden with garbage was going to Palakkad from here, when the mishap occurred around 2 a.m. on a bypass near Karpagam College, police said.
The bus driver, who was trapped in the cabin hailed from Thrissur in Kerala, while the identity of the lorry driver was yet to be established, they said.
Twenty-one of the 48 bus passengers, who escaped through the emergency exit and also by breaking window panes, sustained minor injuries and were treated as outpatients in the government hospital and a nearby private hospital.
Alerted by staff of a nearby toll plaza, six fire engines rushed to the spot and doused the flames after 90 minutes.
Some students lost their certificates, while some others lost their cellphone, laptops and cash, police said.
