Pregnant Woman Burnt To Death

A pregnant woman has died in a commuter bus in Lagos, southwest, Nigeria when the bus caught fire while in motion.

The incident happened at the weekend on the Third Mainland Bridge by Okesuna/Obalende bridge axis, Ikoyi, Lagos State.

The 27-LT 35-seater bus filled with passengers suddenly caught fire in motion and a heavily pregnant woman who could not be identified was burnt to death in the process.

P.M.NEWS learnt that some of the passengers who managed to escape sustained injuries and were rushed to nearby hospitals, while the driver of the bus and his conductor fled the scene of the incident to avoid being lynched by an angry mob.

The cause of the fire outbreak could not be ascertained as at press time, but eyewitnesses at the scene of the incident told P.M.NEWS that the runaway driver of the bus with registration number XQ 257 SMK loaded passengers from Obalende Motor Park enroute to Iyana Oworo-Bariga area.

It was reported that fire suddenly broke out from the engine and spread to other parts of the bus. The fire intensified and before the driver could stop the vehicle, the passengers had started jumping out of the bus through the windows.

In the process some of the passengers caught fire, including the pregnant woman who was at the front seat. While others sustained injuries in the process, the pregnant woman was burnt to death as she could not jump out of the bus.

When P.M.NEWS arrived the scene of the incident, the badly burnt corpse was laid on the ground beside the partially burnt vehicle.

A survivor of the incident who pleaded anonymity told P.M.NEWS that the driver of bus was not the cause of the incident, insisting that the engine of the bus suddenly caught fire.

“The vehicle was in good condition when we left the park before the fire broke out from the engine,” he stated. The burnt vehicle has been towed away by the police at Dolphin Division to their station, while the corpse of the victim has been deposited in a mortuary.

—Paul Iyoghojie