Bus bursts into flames at Merces
A private tourist minibus caught fire at Merces, Panaji, on Saturday night on its way to Margao railway station. No casualties were reported in the incident.
A fire official said they received a call at 2.13am about the fire, which was caused by an air conditioning issue that caused a spark in a tyre.
'The minibus caught fire quite a few hours earlier.
There were passengers in the bus at that time,' said the official.
He said the driver stopped the bus and asked passengers to get off after noticing it had caught fire, which quickly spread to the rest of the vehicle.
'They tried dousing the fire on their own, but failed. That is when we got the call,' he said.
The official added that the bus was destroyed, with the exact cost of the damage still to be determined. The bus owner will visit the Panaji fire station to assess it, he said.
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