Jaipur inferno death toll reaches 15

A chemical-loaded truck had collided in Jaipur on Dec 20. Pic/PTI

The death toll in the gas tanker crash on the Ajmer highway climbed to 15 on Tuesday, with two more persons succumbing to their injuries, hospital authorities said.

"Two patients undergoing treatment died in the morning. Three were discharged yesterday. At present, 18 patients are under treatment and five of them are critical," Dr Sushil Bhati, Superintendent of the SMS Hospital, said.

He said one or two persons would be discharged later in the day as their condition has improved. An LPG tanker collided with a truck on December 20, sparking a massive fireball that turned a stretch of the Jaipur-Ajmer highway into an inferno. Eleven persons had died on the day of the incident.

Police question tanker driver

The driver of an LPG tanker that was involved in the December 20 explosion on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway, appeared before police and later will be also questioned by the Special Investigation Team probing the case, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The driver, identified as Jaiveer, 40, a resident of Mathura in UP, managed to get out of the tanker in time after sensing the impact of the collision, which broke the tanker's outlet nozzles. An FIR was registered in the matter on the day of the incident.

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