52 People Killed in #Kazakhstan Bus Fire

Local Editor

Fifty-two people lost their lives Thursday when the bus they were travelling on caught fire in Kazakhstan, the central Asian nation's emergency services ministry said in a statement.

"On January 18 at 10:30 am [0430 GMT], a bus caught fire ... 55 passengers and two drivers were on board. Five people who managed to escape are receiving medical assistance. The rest died on the spot," the ministry said, without elaborating on the cause of the blaze.

The bus driver said the passengers were Uzbek nationals while the vehicle was registered in Kazakhstan, emergency services ministry official Ruslan Imankulov told AFP.

He also said that the fire spread through the bus extremely quickly.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team