3 die as bus bursts into flames in Shanghai
Three people were killed and at least 12 injured after a passenger carried combustible materials onto a Shanghai bus, which burst into flames at the height of the morning rush hour yesterday.
The incident raises the possibility of terrorism in the mainland's financial capital, but state media did not say if the act was deliberate or an accident. Police could not be reached for comment last night.
The bus was being driven along Huangxing Road in the city's northern Yangpu district when it burst into flames just after 9am, state media and witnesses said.
'After preliminary investigation, the fire relates to a passenger carrying combustible articles onto the bus. Police are further investigating the relevant situation,' the official Shanghai media website, Eastday, and Shanghai Television quoted police as saying. No further details were given.
Some witnesses reported hearing an explosion, but it was not clear if that caused the fire or was the result of fuel igniting after the blaze started. The fire appeared to start near the back of the bus and one passenger said she smelled a 'strange odour' shortly before it broke out.
Most of the passengers - estimated to number 30 to 50 - managed to escape through the doors, but the windows were sealed because it was an air-conditioned vehicle, local media said. Witnesses said the windows shattered after the explosion. 'It was chaos. I was holding my granddaughter when people pushed me off the bus,' one passenger said.
Witnesses said the bus was quickly engulfed by the fire, with the flames reaching a height of 20 metres accompanied by thick black smoke climbing even higher. 'It happened all of a sudden. The fire was very big,' a witness said.
The incident comes amid heightened security worries over the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.
Beijing announced last month it had arrested members of two alleged terrorist groups planning to stage attacks in the capital and Shanghai starting this month and using explosives and poison, state media has reported.
A Uygur woman allegedly tried to blow up a plane from Xinjiang to Beijing with petrol in March.
