At least four people were killed and 25 others were injured after several buses caught fire on the Delhi-Agra Expressway in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura. A rescue operation in underway.
SP Mathura Rural, Suresh Chandra Rawat said that the accident took place at Milestone 127 on the Agra-Noida lane of the expressway following a massive collision in the early hours of Tuesday.
Three cars had collided on the expressway after which seven buses collided with them. One of them was a roadway bus, and the other six were sleeper buses.
Soon after the incident, police teams and fire department personnel rushed to the scene to carry out rescue and relief operations. 11 fire tenders were deployed to douse the flames and rescue passengers trapped inside burning buses.
"11 fire tenders are at the spot. All the buses had caught fire, and the fire has now been brought under control. 4 dead bodies have been recovered so far. Rescue work is underway," the SP said.
An eyewitness said: "An accident took place and nearly 3-4 buses caught fire... I was sleeping when the accident occurred. The bus was fully occupied. All the seats were full. The accident occurred around 4 am."
A rescue operation is underway. Further details are awaited.
The accident is said to have occurred due to thick smog in the region. Several cities across Uttar Pradesh woke up to dense smog on Monday morning amid reduced visibility due to deteriorating air quality. On Monday, the Taj Mahal was completely invisible to the public as Agra was shrouded in dense fog. A local resident said the fog was so thick that even vehicles were difficult to see on the roads.