Greater Noida, Sept. 25 -- Nine passengers were killed and a woman injured after a Bihar-registered AC sleeper bus carrying 35 people caught fire on the Yamuna Expressway near Greater Noida late Wednesday night, with survivors describing a rapidly spreading blaze that trapped passengers inside the vehicle. The fire broke out around 11pm near the 33-km mark close to Dayanatpur village in Jewar as the bus was travelling from Delhi's Kashmere Gate to Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh. While 26 passengers managed to escape, nine were trapped inside and died. Two drivers and the conductor, who escaped from the bus, were later arrested. Two emergency exits -- one at the rear and another on the right side -- were found closed when firefighters reached the spot, and they had to cut open the left side of the bus near the entrance to retrieve the bodies. The incident is the latest in a series of deadly fires involving sleeper buses on Indian highways, renewing questions over the safety of the increasingly common long-distance coaches. The Union government told Parliament in December 2025 that at least 64 people had died in 45 incidents of buses catching fire while in operation over the preceding three years. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had separately asked state governments to take action against sleeper buses violating fire-safety norms. A preliminary transport department investigation has suspected a short circuit as the cause of the fire, while police have said a spark or blast in the bus's air-conditioning system may have ignited engine lubricating oil. Officials said the exact cause was still being investigated. But an FIR filed on the complaint of a passenger has alleged that passengers noticed a burning smell before the fire erupted and informed the driver and conductor, who allegedly failed to stop the bus. The allegations are part of the case against the driver and conductor and have not been independently established. Virendra Kumar Singh, a resident of Orai in Jalaun who was travelling on the bus, told HT that the conductor initially asked passengers to vacate the vehicle and returned moments later shouting that there was a fire. "I was using my mobile phone when the bus conductor came inside and shouted, 'Vacate the bus.' Within 30 seconds, he anxiously entered again and shouted, 'Fire has broken out. Vacate the bus,'" Singh said....