Three buses gutted in fire at Miyapur school

HYDERABAD: In what turned out to be re-run of an incident, three school buses of

Janapriya

school in

Miyapur

mysteriously caught fire on Sunday. The buses were parked on the school premises when the incident occurred at 2.30pm. In November 2016, two buses of the same school had caught fire within its premises. Police suspect that miscreants are setting the buses on fire.

As it was a Sunday, no students or school staff were present on campus. Miyapur police said the blaze started in one

bus

and spread to the other. All the three buses were engulfed in fire within minutes. Though the fire was extinguished, the buses were heavily damaged.

“There is a land dispute which is suspected to be a reason for setting the buses on fire. If not that, short circuit maybe a reason,” said Suman Kumar, sector officer of Miyapur, adding that there were no casualties or injuries.

The police has booked a case against unknown suspects under section 435 of the Indian Penal Code (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to amount of one hundred or (in case of agricultural produce) ten rupees). When TOI contacted the school authorities, the officials refused to comment on the matter.

This is not the only incident wherein school buses were gutted in fire. It maybe recalled that in August, 2016, almost 50 students and a driver had a narrow escape after aschool bus caught fire in Manikonda.