MAHBUBNAGAR: Forty-five passengers were feared dead when a private Volvo bus from Bangalore to Hyderabad caught fire on the Mahbubngar national highway-44 during early hours on Wednesday.

Among those who died in the Volvo bus accident in Mahbubnagar , five were engineers working for IBM and other software companies in Bangalore. However, the police have confirmed 45 deaths. All the bodies were retrieved by the police and revenue officials. Among those who died were two infants, aged one-and-a-half and two years.

The district police had got the list of online booking passengers of the Volvo bus of Jabbar travels which got gutted near Kothakota early this morning at 5.30am.

The speeding bus had hit against a road divider as a result of which the diesel tank went up in flames. The fire spread into the bus and 45 passengers died in the incident, according to the latest toll figures given out by the police.

The relatives of the deceased passengers are arriving at the spot from Hyderabad. The bus was on its way from Bangalore to Hyderabad where it met with the accident 110 km from Hyderabad.

The software companies employees who died in the mishap were coming to Hyderabad to celebrate Diwali with their families.

District collector M.Girija Shankar said the passengers could not escape as the central locking system of the bus made it impossible for them to open the door. The emergency windows opening were also automatically locked.

"The main reason why the mishap occurred was because the bus was speeding and it hit against a road divider," an official said.

