HYDERABAD: Forty 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.

According to the Kothakota Circle inspector S.Venkateshwarlu and the eye witnesses, the incident took place around 5.30am. The volvo bus belonging to the Jabbar travels (AP02TA-0963) coming from Bangalore to Hyderabad met with an fire accident nearly Palem village of Kothakota mandal. The driver and the helper of the bus along with other three passengers escaped with thirty per cent injures. The rest of the passengers got charred to death, according to initial reports which the police have got.

Mahabubnagar district collector M.Girija Shankar said five passengers were undergoing treatment at a hospital at Vanaparti. He along with superintendent of police Nagendra Kumar visited the scene. They said a list of only 29 passengers was received from the private bus travels. Other passengers boarded the bus enroute.

With heat emanating from the bus, the officials had a tough time trying to retrieve the dead bodies from the bus. The district administration is trying to identify the dead bodies. The bodies were completely charred, police said. Police were approaching the travel agency to know the occupancy in the bus. CM, N Kiran Kumar Reddy and district minister D K Aruna expressed shock at the incident and expressed their condolences to the bereaved families.

Five persons who survived with 30 per cent injuries were shifted to the DRDL hospital, Hyderabad. The condition of three among them is set to be critical.

The bus left Bangalore at 10 pm on Tuesday and was scheduled to reach Hyderabad at 6.30am.

(With inputs from IANS)