HYDERABAD: Awaken by a loud explosion, a dazed Jai Singh could only hear frantic calls for help amidst the wailing children. One of the five lucky passengers to escape death, Jai, was barely able to narrate his story of miraculous escape from an inferno that swallowed 45 of his fellow passengers.

“Everyone was fast asleep when the bus suddenly came to a halt and we thought it was the driver who had slammed the breaks,” said Jai, lying in a hospital bed.

“Seeing smoke and flames, engulfing the bus, everyone started running towards the passageway and exit, which was clogged and people were jostling. I saw some passengers fall down and get trampled by others,” he said.

Singh who hails from Uttar Pradesh and is a glass fabricator at a Bangalore-based firm, got a seat in the last row and with everyone trying to push their way towards the front, he thought his end was near.“I thought I had no chance as the fire was spreading from all directions and in the melee, many people were running towards the exit and some were banging on the windows,” he said.

But as fate had it, his eyes veered towards the emergency exit behind him, which he smashed in seconds and lunged out of the bus.

His three colleagues, who were accompanying him, were among the 45 who were charred to death.

“It was chaotic as everyone wanted to escape from the flames. There was no room for anyone,” said Singh, his eye moist with tears. Before Singh passed out, he saw four others jump out of the bus. Another survivor , Sai Srikar, a techie, who sustained 15% burns is in a state of shock.

A resident of Sainikpuri, Srikar told his relative that he fell off on the passageway and people walked over him. “I cried out loud, then got up and decided I won’t die here,” he was quoted as said by a relative.

