At least 60 people were killed when a bus carrying a wedding party drove into a power cable and burst into flames in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said today.
The victims were returning from a wedding in the state's Bahraich district when their bus struck the cable, a police spokesman said earlier from the state capital of Lucknow.
"The bus's roof was piled high with bicycles which snared... an overhead high-tension cable and then the bus caught (fire), killing 50 people on the spot," he said.
Ten others died later, he said. The bride and groom survived the accident as they were travelling separately in a jeep, he added.
Fifteen of those travelling in the bus were children, he added.
Seven people who managed to get out of the bus were taken to a hospital in a serious condition.
Local officials said some of the passengers appeared to have tried to remove the cable from the bus, but the vehicle caught fire before they could do so.
AFP
