One person died and 51 had a close shave when a sleeper bus with 52 pilgrims caught fire on the Agra-Lucknow expressway under Mursena limits in Firozabad district. The victim was asleep when the incident took place. The deceased was identified as Pawan Sharma, in his early 30s. The remaining pilgrims — all from Nagaur in Rajasthan — managed to jump out of windows as the vehicle was quickly engulfed in flames, locals said. SP (city) Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Saturday: \”There were 52 pilgrims on board. The fire spread within minutes. It happened at milestone 41/200 on the expressway. The reason behind the fire is being probed,\” he said, adding that the driver stopped the bus after some passengers \”noticed a strange smell in the front cabin\” He said: \”It was late at night and people were mostly asleep. There was panic, and people started screaming for help and breaking the windows.\”
