Uznews.net – A bus that exploded on the outskirts of Tashkent on Tuesday killing six and wounding 15 passengers has forced authorities to suspend the operations of all buses running on compressed natural gas in the capital.

The incident took place in Tashkent’s Bektemir district at about 1900. The bus LAZ-695, owned by the Payteks textile joint venture, was carrying a night shift.

Some sources said that the explosion had happened after the driver had filled in all eight gas tanks at a station in the village of Iik-Ota, and because the tanks were old and gas was pumped at excessively high pressure.

At least six people died on the spot and a further 15 – mainly women from the town of Alimkent in Tashkent’s Region’s Akkurgan District – were taken to Tashkent hospitals with serious injuries.

At the same time, as it has become a custom in Uzbekistan, local newspapers did not cover the incident even next day. Moreover, authorities ordered cable television studios to switch off foreign news channels, for example Euronews, which covered the explosion. The authorities explained this by the need to prevent panic among the population.

After the explosion the authorities suspended the operations of Russian- and Ukrainian-made LAZ and PAZ buses and Gazel minibuses that run on condensed natural gas. The traffic police launched inspections to study their engines.

Uzbek drivers started to switch to condensed natural gas several years ago because it is two to four times cheaper than petrol. However, engines on condensed natural gas explode more often than petrol ones.

Specialists say that explosions take place because inexperienced people without licences have started installing engines that operate on condensed natural gas on vehicles.