Four tourist among five killed in explosion inside bus

SRINAGAR: Five persons, including four tourists from Gujarat, were killed and 19 others injured in an explosion apparently caused by bursting of the compressor of the air conditioner in a bus here on Sunday.

The incident occurred this afternoon near Shalimar on the banks of Dal lake when the bus carrying tourists from Gujarat was on its way to the Mughal gardens here from Hazratbal shrine.

Preliminary information suggested that the blast was caused by the bursting of the compressor, a police spokesman said.

Forensic experts visited the site to determine the nature of the blast.

The window panes of the bus were smashed by the blast, leaving its occupants screaming for help, eye-witnesses said.

Of the 24 people wounded in the blast, five including four tourists succumbed to their injuries, the spokesman said.

The dead were identified as Musa Sheikh, Syeda, Razia and Amina Bibi (all residents of Gujarat) and a local woman Nusrat who, with another member of her family, was accompanying the tourists.

The condition of one more injured tourist was critical, hospital sources said.

Last year, several tourists were killed and scores of others injured in a series of grenade attacks at various places, which resulted in a considerable drop in the tourist arrivals last season.