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The
bus was traveling along a road in the remote Aktobe region that
links the Russian city of Samara to Shymkent, a city in southern
Kazakhstan close to the Uzbek border.
The bus was traveling from southern Kazakhstan to Russia's
Kazan, Kazakh officials said. The route is widely used to
transport Uzbek workers to and from Russia where they often take
work on building sites.
Only five people managed to escape the burning vehicle, the
interior ministry's emergencies department said in a statement.
The ministry said the apparent accident had happened at 10.30
a.m. (0430 GMT), but provided no details about its cause. It
said senior government officials would investigate the matter.
A photograph posted online from the site showed the bus
completely burnt out. Video footage also posted on the Web
showed it positioned diagonally across a two-lane freeway in the
middle of a snow-covered steppe, in flames and emitting heavy
black smoke.
Uzbekistan's foreign ministry said in a statement its embassy
staff were en route to the area, roughly midway between the
Russian border and the Aral Sea.
Separately, Uzbekistan's Emergencies Ministry said it was
sending a plane with its own team of doctors and rescuers to the
site.
Last October, another Kazakh-operated bus carrying over 50
Uzbeks was hit by a train in Russia after getting stuck on the
tracks; 17 people died in that accident.
(Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov;
Editing by Toby Chopra)
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