Ranchi: Traffic was stalled on the busy Ranchi-Ramgarh stretch of NH-33 since Monday night after an damaged LPG tanker, lying on one side of the road, caught fire upon impact with one of three vehicles that were involved in an accident with at least 20 people suffering injuries, three of whom were rushed to RIMS in Ranchi with serious burns.

At least seven vehicles were burnt, one of which was an ambulance carrying, what police believe, was a dead body that was totally charred in the tanker fire.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel reached the spot of the accident at Chutupalu valley in Ranchi, around 40km from capital headquarters, at 12 midnight, around four hours after the accident involving a truck, trailer and bus occurred at 9pm.

Till around 4pm on Tuesday, the fire on the LPG tanker of 18 kilo litre capacity belonging to Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) hadn't been doused. NDRF officials estimated it would take another eight to nine hours for all the LPG to burn out.

As a precaution, all vehicles bound for Ramgarh, Dhanbad, Bokaro and beyond were being diverted via the Sikidri-Gola road under Ormanjhi police station in Ranchi. Others used the Ranchi-Patratu road.

But traffic was crawling because of the huge line of vehicles meandering through various police barricades, said local residents.

According to police sources, a truck and a trailer going towards Ramgarh first rubbed against each other. The two were trying to overtake one another when one of them hit one of the wheels of the stationary tanker that was lying precariously about 100 meter away.

The impact may have led to a spark which caused the fire, possibly due to LPG that had leaked from the tanker, NDRF and IOCL officials told The Telegraph later.

A passenger bus (Ashirwad), with over two dozen on board on way to Sahebganj, was behind the truck and trailer. It could not apply the brakes on time and came crashing onto them. Other vehicles that were in the vicinity, including two cars, a bike and the ambulance with the dead body, also caught fire.

A local resident recalled last night's scene as scary. "It was horrifying to see huge balls of fire in total darkness. It was drizzling too. There was panic all around with vehicles on both sides of the road trying to cross the area at high speed to try and avoid the blaze," said Radheshyam Tiwari, a resident of Ormanjhi, who had gone there with friends to help at 10pm.

He said soon there was a 6km long line of stranded vehicles on both sides of Ranchi and Ramgarh.

OC of Ramgarh police station Rajesh Kumar said he could only reach the spot with a police team around 11pm, but had already called sadar hospital and 108 for ambulances. "We sent 22 people with varying degree of injuries to sadar hospital," he said but could not explain why the LPG tanker, which had met with an accident in the morning, had not been towed away.

NDRF inspector Saroj Kumar said they were camping at the site as a precaution while as many as six fire tenders were trying to put out the blaze.

"Some of the IOCL officials who had come for inspection estimated that gas was probably leaking from the tanker from 8am. The impact of the accident at 9pm led to the fire," Kumar said.

Ramgarh deputy commissioner B. Rajeshwari, who also reached the spot in the wee hours of Tuesday, said there was no confirmation about casualties. "Some 15-16 were injured. We sent three or four persons with serious burns to RIMS. The others who had minor injuries were sent to sadar hospital. But many of them left after receiving first aid," she said.

Asked why the gas tanker was not removed on Monday, Rajeshwari claimed they had called in IOCL officials and all precautions had been taken. "The tanker was on the side, outside the area of vehicle movement. IOCL officials from Bokaro sealed the leaks. We had cordoned off one side of the road for a few hours on Monday. The accident at night caused fire," she said.

Senior IOCL officer Ajay Khalko said they were drawing up plans to remove the tanker. "Our rescue team is making preparations to remove the tanker," he said, but could not explain the delay.

Dhanwar MLA Raj Kumar Yadav said facilities weren't good at RIMS where he met two bus passengers who were injured, Hasina Biwi, in her 60s, and Abdul Gaffar, in his 70s. "They are from Birni in Giridih. Abdul was lying on the floor. I could not find attendants. I went to meet RIMS authorities but no one was present," he said.