Mumbai:

A pregnant woman and her family in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district had a close shave on Wednesday evening after the engine of an ambulance caught fire and an oxygen cylinder exploded minutes later.

A video shows the ambulance on fire and then going up in a ball of flames, with sparks shooting several feet high. The explosion was so strong that windows of some nearby houses were shattered.

The driver saw smoke emanating from the engine. He got off and went to a safe distance from the ambulance, asking the pregnant woman and the family to do the same. The engine of the ambulance caught fire after everyone had disembarked and an oxygen cylinder inside the vehicle exploded minutes later.

The incident took place on a flyover on a National Highway in the Dada Wadi area when the ambulance was ferrying the pregnant woman and her family from the Erandol government hospital to Jalgaon district hospital.