Multan, August 30:

Twelve passengers were burnt to death when a fire broke out on a crowded bus after it hit a power cable in central Pakistan today, police said. The bus was heading for the town of Rahim Yar Khan, 400 km south of Islamabad, but had to take a diversion as the main road was closed for repairs, local police chief Syed Ahsan Mahboob said. A bicycle on the roof of the bus then hit the high-tension overhead transmission line, triggering the blaze, he said.