Fifty-two persons, including 50 passengers, were travelling in the Volvo bus when the mishap occurred. Initial reports had said that some software engineers were among the victims.
The bodies have been burnt beyond recognition and it is difficult to ascertain how many of the dead are men or women, Chand said.
Five passengers, the driver Feroze Khan and cleaner Ayyaz, managed to escape with burn injuries and were undergoing treatment at different hospitals, another police officer said.
Mahabubnagar District Collector Girija Shankar and District SP D Nagendra Kumar, who were supervising the rescue operation said, “The identification of the deceased will be determined after conducting DNA tests and collecting blood samples of the relatives.
“The mortal remains will be handed over the kin of the deceased after the DNA tests,” the Collector said.
A team of doctors from Gandhi Hospital and Osmania General Hospital and forensic experts from Hyderabad rushed to the spot to conduct post-mortem of the bodies. The bus started from Bangalore at 11 PM last night.
