43 people (including school kids) on board an Inter Africa bus that caught fire yesterday near Battlefields between Kwekwe and Kadoma narrowly avoided death.

Since the main goal was to free everyone, the majority of the bags were set on fire.

A stampede of people trying to escape the blazing bus resulted in some injuries.

Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko, a spokeswoman for the Midlands Provincial police, verified the event, which happened around noon.

He said it was still too early to estimate the worth of the things lost.

“We can confirm the fire accident involving a bus this afternoon (yesterday) where the bus was reduced to a shell, with passengers losing their luggage.

“But we are still to get details,” he said.

Mr Paradzai Makombe, who was on the bus, said no one salvaged anything from the bus.

“It was so sudden that we only managed to stampede out of the bus, leaving everything behind.

“Only a few used the door, the majority of people jumped through windows, with some sustaining minor burns,” he said.

Another passenger, Mr Lovemore Rutsata, said the fire started from the engine of the bus.

“The driver applied emergency brakes and we all started to rush out of the bus. No one knows what caused the fire, but the bus was reduced to a shell as several efforts to try and put out the fire failed,” he said.- state media