Toll climbs to 29 in Indian bus fire

The death toll from a head-on smash between a passenger bus running on compressed natural gas and a chemical tanker rose to 29 yesterday, the Press Trust of India said.

Police told the news agency they had recovered 29 bodies and that another 14 people were injured in the accident, which occurred when the bus tried to overtake another vehicle on a highway in western Gujarat state Monday.

Six of the dead had been identified but most bodies were charred beyond recognition by the flames that engulfed the bus, police said.

Thirteen of the injured were being treated in local hospitals and three of them were in serious condition, the report said.