Eight cars, a sport utility vehicle, a moped and a motorbike were burnt completely in a fire that broke out at a car service station at Anupparpalayam near here in the early hours of Tuesday.
Two water tenders pressed into service doused the flames in about an hour.
Police officials said that burst of a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder, fitted in one of the vehicles parked without proper certification, had triggered the fire.
The eight cars destroyed were three Maruti 800s, an Omni van, a Tata Sumo, a Maruti Zen, an Ambassador and a Tata Indica.
The Anupparpalayam police have registered a case and are investigating.
Injured
As many as 12 students of a private school at Gudimangalam sustained minor injuries when the school bus in which they were travelling was involved in a collision with a State-owned public transport bus, on Tuesday.
The accident occurred on Udumalpet-Tirupur stretch of the road.
It is said that the accident occurred when the public transport bus allegedly slowed down in order to negotiate a speed breaker that was ahead.
The police have arrested the school bus driver, Anand, for rash driving which allegedly caused the accident.
Accidents
As many as five persons were killed in four separate road accidents that took place in Tirupur district on Monday evening.
According to police sources here, two unidentified youth were fatally knocked down from their motorbike when the two-wheeler was involved in a collision with a private bus at Perumanallur.
At Kangayam, another motorcycle rider K. Gopal (55) was killed when his vehicle was involved in a collision with a State-owned public transport bus.
C. Ramaiah (55) and P. Viswanathan (50) died after their motorbikes were involved in collisions with cars at Palladam and Avinashipalayam, respectively.
Arrested
The Tirupur South police on Tuesday arrested a 30-year-old man on the charge of stealing Rs. 1.25 lakh from the office of a tourist taxi operator situated on Tirupur-Kangayam road.
Police said the accused, who was working in the same organisation, utilised the absence of office staff to steal the cash that had been kept inside a locker.
