2 friends, both named Ramesh, were travelling on Kurnool bus; one survived, one perished

In a tragic twist of fate, two namesake friends who had shared a decades-long bond were travelling with their families on the same bus that caught fire, leaving 20 dead in Kurnool district on Friday.

While one family escaped with their lives, the other perished in the tragedy.

Guruaiyah said his brother-in-law G Ramesh, wife Anushka, and their two children died while travelling from Hyderabad to Bengaluru after a short trip.

A family friend and survivor, N Ramesh, said he broke the bus window to escape after the locked rear emergency door trapped passengers, saving his family of three--wife and children--along with a couple of others from the flames.

"The fire erupted around 2.30-3 am. Initially, passengers thought of a tyre burst, but panic spread as flames engulfed the front part, fo