School bus catches fire in Navi Mumbai, 20 injured

Twenty school children were injured, one of them seriously, when their school bus caught fire at Navi Mumbai on Thursday morning.

The incident happened around 0700 hours when the bus carrying about 40 children was on its way to CKT school in New Panvel after picking up the students, police said.

V Chandanshive, ACP, Navi Mumbai, said. "A boy on the bus told me there was smell of kerosene or petrol (in the bus). So we have already registered a case against the driver and owner and arrested them". The exact reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained.

Of the 20 injured, six children have been admitted to National Burns Centre in Airoli, two to Masina hospital in Byculla and few other children have been taken to Life Line

hospital in Panvel and MGM hospital in Panvel among others.

"Of the two children admitted at Masina hospital, a 11-year-old boy has suffered 40 per cent burn injuries. Another 11-year-old girl suffered 60 per cent burn injuries and is serious," a doctor from Masina hospital said.

Image: The school bus on fire. Photograph: Sahil Salvi