An MSRTC bus on its way from Rajgurunagar in Pune to Nashik apparently suffered a brake failure and hit four motorcycles and two SUVs before ramming into another MSRTC bus coming from Sinnar, he said.

"Two motorcyclists were trapped between the two buses and were charred to death as their bikes caught fire. One person received serious injuries. The bus coming from Rajgurunagar also caught fire," the official said.?Local people broke the windows of the burning bus and rescued all 43 passengers, he added.

Two fire tenders from Nashik Road fire station and one rescue van from Shingada Talao fire station were rushed to the spot and the blaze was doused, the police official said.?Some passengers in the bus which caught fire received minor injuries and were being treated at Nashik Municipal Corporation's Bytco Hospital, he said.?

The names of the two deceased persons were yet to be ascertained. "It seems that the bus coming from Rajgurunagar suffered a brake failure, but more details are awaited. Traffic on the highway was disrupted for some time due to the accident and the crowd which gathered," the official said.

On October 8, as many as 13 people were killed and 35 injured when a private bus caught fire after colliding with a truck on Nashik-Aurangabad highway in the Nashik district.