Beed, March 16 Twenty passengers were injured after a private tourist bus overturned and caught fire following a tyre burst in Maharashtra's Beed district on Monday, a police official said.
The incident occurred at 2:30 am near Surani on the Manjarsumba-Ambajogai road in the Kaij tehsil, about 50 kilometers from the district headquarters, the official added.
"The bus, carrying 28 passengers, was traveling from Jalgaon to Latur. Its tyre burst at a sharp curve, causing the vehicle to lose control, break the roadside railing, and fall into a ditch on the left side. Passengers from a passing Nanded-Pune bus rushed to the scene and managed to rescue those in the ill-fated vehicle, which quickly caught fire," he said.
Twenty passengers were injured, and were subsequently taken to the nearby sub-district hospital by a team under Kaij police station inspector Swapnil Unawane, the official said.
"Eleven passengers were later transferred to Swami Rananand Teerth Government Rural Hospital and Medical College in Ambajogai, and the remaining nine to a facility in Latur," said medical officer Dr. Awez Shaikh.
Police said the fire also destroyed passenger belongings and spread to a nearby farm plot, destroying mango, jamun, tamarind, berry, and lemon trees.
The injured include a 3-month-old child, police said.