Zee Media Bureau
Dahanu/New Delhi: Seven people died and nine were injured in a oil tanker explosion on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway on Saturday, reports said.
The tanker travelling from Mumbai to Gujarat was carrying petrol.
It went up in flames in Dahanu`s Charota naka area at around 3 pm after overturning and exploding, officials in the district disaster control room said.
Three persons travelling in the vehicle and four other bystanders were burnt alive, control room chief Jaideep Visave said.
Fire fighters and ambulances from nearby towns were rushed to the spot.
The explosion was so powerful that at least six vehicles, including two 6-seater autorickshaws, one bike, two cars and a hand cart which were in the vicinity of the mishap-hit vehicle got damaged, police said.
The leaping flames from the burning vehicle also gutted a portion of a hotel, located nearby.
The highway was partially thrown open to traffic in the evening after fire brigade and highway authorities managed to extinguish the fire and tow the tanker away.
Out of some injured admitted to a hospital in Kasa, the condition of five of them is said to be critical, while some injured were shifted to Thane civil hospital, police said.
Most of the victims are charred beyond recognition and police are planning to conduct DNA tests to identify them, sources said.
With PTI Inputs
