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SCMP Reporter

Conflicting information emerged yesterday after a bus caught fire and exploded in Chongqing, leaving seven people injured.
One of the victims was in serious condition last night, Xinhua reported. There were 20 people on board at the time.
Quoting a spokesman for the bus company, local media said police had ruled out an accident and said the fire had not ignited on its own.  
Xinhua last night confirmed that police were investigating, but said that the bus might have caught fire by itself. 
It said investigators still had not decided on the exact cause of the fire.
According to witnesses, the bus fire progressed from a few small flames to a blaze which engulfed the bus within three or four minutes and caused an explosion, which shattered windows, the Chongqing-based cqnews.com reported. 
All people aboard  escaped after the driver opened the doors.
Authorities confirmed that the fire occurred about 3.25pm on Nanzhong Road in Yuzhong district. The bus was burnt to a skeleton within 15 minutes.
The authorities blocked traffic, and at 3.50pm, the Chongqing Public Traffic Holding Group, which owned the vehicle, announced that it was not an accident.
An unidentified female witness said the fire suddenly started at the rear of the vehicle and quickly spread. 'I took video through my mobile [phone] during the accident,' she was quoted by the website as saying, adding that a woman in her 30s had rushed out with injuries to an arm and a leg. 
Her video showed flames and smoke eventually rising two storeys high. 
Early in June, an unemployed suicide-arsonist ignited a blaze on a bus in Chengdu, Sichuan , which killed 27 people and injured 74. 
Ever since the incident, bus safety has been a hot topic on the mainland.
In the Chengdu tragedy, many passengers could not escape because bus doors failed to open and safety hammers that could have been used to shatter the windows could not be found.
Many mainlanders purchased their own safety hammers to carry on buses after the tragedy.
The accident also raised public concern over Chongqing's public security with the municipality a focus of a big police crackdown on organised crime gangs that began two months ago. 
So far Chongqing police have detained hundreds of people who they say are involved, including gangsters and corrupt officials. They say 469 alleged gangsters are still at large. 
But many residents have expressed anxieties about the return of the gangs once the campaign ends, saying gangs motivated by revenge are likely to wreak damage to public property and threaten safety.



Police investigate after bus explosion injures  seven in Chongqing