QUETTA: At least 15 passengers, including eight women, five children and two men, were burnt to death and several others injured seriously late on Monday night when armed men set a Quetta-bound bus on fire near Sibi, some 160km east of here.

“At least 15 people have been killed in the fire and many others were injured,” Sibi's Assistant Commissioner Shahzaib Mandokhail confirmed to Dawn .

When the bus, which was coming from Peshawar, reached near Pirak area of Sibi, the driver parked it at a roadside hotel. Four armed men riding on motorcycles reached there and two of them entered the bus.

After sprinkling the vehicle with petrol, they put it on fire. At least 15 passengers were killed and many others suffered burn injuries.

Personnel of Levies and other law enforcement agencies rushed to the scene and took the bodies and injured to the Sibi civil hospital.

“The death toll may go up as the condition of most of the injured is serious,” hospital sources said.