Nine killed after sleeper bus catches fire near New Delhi

Nine passengers were killed late on Wednesday, September 23, after an overnight sleeper bus caught fire on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida, outside India’s national capital, New Delhi, according to media reports.

A police report cited by the media said the fire was caused by a malfunction involving the bus’s air-conditioning unit. The driver and conductor escaped the blaze but subsequently absconded, police said.

A passenger who survived the incident told local journalists that the bus was packed with passengers and that many people were asleep when the fire broke out.

“I was sleeping when someone woke me up saying the bus had caught fire, and we all scrambled to get out,” the passenger said. “It was not an easy situation to escape; there was a lot of smoke. We somehow managed to get out.”

Police have launched an investigation into the incident.

The fire is the latest in a series of deadly bus incidents reported in India in recent months. In March 2026, at least 13 people were killed in a bus accident in Andhra Pradesh. In October 2025, at least 20 people died after a bus caught fire following a collision with a motorcycle in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh. That same month, a bus fire in Rajasthan killed at least 20 people and left about 16 others seriously injured.

In April 2025, at least 25 people were killed and eight others injured when a bus caught fire on an expressway in Maharashtra.

By Tamilla Hasanova