THREE people have been injured after a bus went up in flames in the French city of Lille.
A group of young people on a bus connecting two Lille suburbs were reportedly playing with a spray can and a lighter before the vehicle caught fire and passengers had to evacuate, according to regional paper La Voix du Nord.
Fire fighters rescued three people who had received burn injuries while trying to escape the bus.
They have been transported to a treatment centre for burn victims.
As they were playing with the lighter and the aerosol, the bus seats caught fire. The flames then quickly spread to the teens’ clothes as the fire rapidly grew.
Another witness said: “They rolled on the floor and another passenger tried to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.”
However, the “kids”, as the witness called them, ran away as soon as they were able to.
Witnesses said the driver apparently noticed nothing as the fire first started at the back of the bus.
Another passenger alerted him to the fire and organised the evacuation of the bus.
Within minutes, the entire vehicle was engulfed in flames, before it exploded on the side of the road in Lille.
A resident of the street where the bus ended its journey described the scene after he left his house when he heard screams.
He told La Voix du Nord: “The bus went up in smoke in under three minutes.
“I went out as soon as I heard screams.”
He said the scene was like something out of an action film: “There were flames everywhere and there was a big explosion.”
Firefighters arrived on the scene around half an hour after the fire first broke out, using two hoses to put out the blaze.
They rescued three burn victims from the bus, described as three men in their twenties.
They were transported to a centre for burn victims. More information about their condition is not known.