4 escape as car catches fire in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: A Matiz car caught fire on a road in Khairatabad on Tuesday afternoon, while its four passengers had a hairbreadth escape, thanks to the efforts of an agile cop.

The four-wheeler was gutted in fire and policemen used water cannon, brought in for Assembly bandobust, to extinguish the blaze. The incident took place near Khairatabad crossroad at 12.15 pm. The car owner, Mohd. Manzur, a resident of Kanchanbagh, was on his way to Erragadda with family.

Eyewitness Iqbal Hussain, a student of IIPM, said a fire at the backside of the vehicle was noticed by Akbar Ali, a traffic homeguard from Panjagutta traffic police station, who then ran behind the car and alerted its driver. The cop also opened the backdoor for the women and children to escape.

“As the passengers and cop moved away from the vehicle, within a fraction of a second, flames engulfed it,” he said. He added that the policemen, who were deployed on the road as part of Assembly bandobust, acted quickly and extinguished the fire.

Iqbal also added that the oil or fuel was seen leaking from the vehicle seconds before it caught fire. Panjagutta police suspects a mechanical flaw behind the incident. The car with registration number UP10D6180 was confiscated for investigation and a case has been registered.

This is the fourth vehicular fire accident reported in city in the past two days. In all the accidents, the passengers fortunately escaped unhurt.