Mother visiting her daughter, techie returning after Diwali holidays: Families search for loved ones after Kurnool bus tragedy

Many of the 19 passengers who died after the bus caught fire following a collision with a bike in the early hours of Friday have not yet been identified

Written by Sreenivas Janyala

Hyderabad | Updated: October 24, 2025 09:47 PM IST

4 min read

Volunteers remove a dead body from the debris of a passenger bus which caught fire early Friday after a collision with a motorbike on a highway, in Chinnatekuru village, near Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh on Friday. (AP Photo)

At least 19 passengers of a bus going from Hyderabad to Bengaluru and the rider of the motorcycle that collided with the bus, resulting in a massive fire, died in the tragedy in Kurnool early on Friday. However, most of the dead have not been identified, leaving several families in a frantic search for their loved ones.

The family of Philemon Baby and her son Kishore Kumar are waiting for information on their fate. Baby had visited her daughter in the Patancheru area of Hyderabad, and her son had come from Bengaluru to take her back home. They boarded the bus on Thursday night from Patancheru and were declared missing after the accident, which took place at around 3 am Friday.

“I could not believe it when someone told me about the incident. I saw her just a day ago… She used to chat with the neighbours often,” said Padmaja, a neighbour.

In Telangana’s Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, the family of Anusha Reddy, 22, is awaiting news about her. Anusha, a techie working in Bengaluru, had boarded the bus at Lakdikapool in Hyderabad. “A lively and charming person. She had come home to celebrate Diwali,” a relative said.

K Chandana, 25, from Medak, who is also a techie, is among the missing along with her mother Sandhya. They had boarded the bus at Hyderabad’s Moosapet Y Junction. Chandana’s father works in the Gulf and had recently returned after celebrating Diwali in Medak.

According to officials in Andhra Pradesh, six people from Andhra Pradesh, six from Telangana, one from Bihar, two from Tamil Nadu, and two from Karnataka were among the dead.

Andhra Pradesh Home Minister V Anitha said that of the 19 passengers who died, 17 were adults and two were children. Anitha, who visited the site of the accident and the Kurnool Government Hospital to check on the injured, said 27 people had escaped from the bus.

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She identified the six victims from Andhra Pradesh as being G Dhatri from Bapatla town, Srinivas Reddy from Ravulapalem in Konaseema district, and Golla Ramesh, along with his wife Anusha and their two children. The minister said that 16 forensic teams have been rushed to the spot to help identify the others.

“Given that the entire bus has been gutted, it is nothing short of a miracle that several passengers and the two drivers were able to escape while a great tragedy and misfortune fell on those who could not make it out alive,” she said.

The motorcyclist who died has been identified as B Siva Shankar, 24, of Kurnool.

The Telangana government has sent a team to Kurnool, including Gadwal Jogulamba district Collector B M Santosh and Superintendent of Police T Srinivas Rao, to assist in the identification of bodies and in bringing them home. Telangana Excise and Tourism Minister Jupally Krishna Rao also visited the accident site on Friday and is in touch with Andhra Pradesh ministers.

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The Telangana government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the deceased and Rs 2 lakh for the injured passengers from the state.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. The Andhra Pradesh government has also announced Rs 5 lakh to the families of the dead and Rs 2 lakh to the injured.

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