Passengers, driver escape inferno as tour bus catches ablaze in SW Japan

A tour bus traveling between two cities in Japan's southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka caught fire on an expressway Monday, although all 26 onboard including the driver managed to escape the inferno, local media said.

According to local reports, the fire department received an emergency call from the bus driver traveling on the Kyushu Expressway's outbound line at around 9:15am (0015 GMT).

The bus, which had departed from the city of Fukuoka and was heading on the expressway to Yanagawa City in the same prefecture, apparently caught ablaze after a tire had burst, the driver reportedly said.

The blaze ensued and quickly engulfed the vehicle as it pulled into a bus stop, but all those on board managed to evacuate the inferno with nobody injured, local media said.

A video taken from a passing car showed plumes of dense white smoke billowing from the wreckage and sweeping around 30 meters into the air and across the expressway as firefighters fought to bring the ferocious inferno under control.

The blaze was finally extinguished by firefighters at around 11am (0200 GMT), with an image of the bus taken after the fire was extinguished showing the majority of the vehicle had been entirely gutted by the blaze, with most of the windows blown out and a large portion of the roof missing.