By IANS,
Hyderabad/New Delhi : Thirteen people were killed and three injured early Friday when four coaches of a passenger train caught fire in Andhra Pradesh’s Mehboobabad town. The cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained but Railway Minister Lalu Prasad ruled out the possibility of a bomb blast.
“The exact reason of the fire has not been detected yet and the inquiry is going on. But there was no bomb blast,” Lalu Prasad told reporters.
The train was going from Secunderabad to Kakinada when the fire started in Mehboobabad, about 250 km from state capital Hyderabad.
“Thirteen people were killed and three injured in the fire,” a railway official said.
Lalu Prasad announced compensation of Rs.500,000 each for the families of those killed and Rs.100,000 for the injured. He said one member of each family that has lost someone in the fire would be given a job with the railways.