A school bus that was returning to the campus after dropping all children home caught fire on the Taratala flyover on Monday afternoon, police said.
Officers of Taratala police station said there was no student on the bus when the fire broke out. The driver and the helper could leave the vehicle before it got engulfed in flames.
The entire bus was gutted in a few minutes, said an eyewitness who was travelling through the flyover.
The police said no one was injured in the fire, but traffic on the Taratala flyover was restricted for around an hour, till the bus could be removed.
Vehicular movement on Diamond Harbour Road was affected, too, because of traffic restrictions on the flyover, the police said.
Traffic had to be diverted through James Long Sarani till the bus was removed and movement resumed on the flyover.
An officer of the traffic department said an electrical short circuit could have caused the fire. The incident happened around 1.25pm on the southern slope of the flyover that lands towards Behala.
“It was an empty bus of Delhi Public School Joka. The driver and the helper jumped out of the bus in time,” said the officer.
Flames engulfed the entire bus in a few minutes.
One fire tender had rushed to the spot and doused the blaze. The police said the fire could have had serious consequences had there been children inside the bus.
“Luckily, there were no students inside the bus,” said an officer of Taratala police station.
The bus was removed from the flyover and taken to the police station.
An officer said the bus would be sent for a medical test to ascertain the cause of the fire.
