A truck carrying 400 LPG cylinders caught fire on highway number 44 near Enugamarri village in Kurnool district during the wee hours of Thursday.
All the cylinders exploded, but no casualties were reported. The Kurnool police said the truck was on its way from an HP filling station in Vadiampet in Anantapur District to a delivery point in Nandikotkur.
The driver and the cleaner noticed the fire as they reached Enugamarri and immediately abandoned the truck. The fire intensified and the cylinders exploded with deafening roar, letting out large balls of flame.
Residents of Enugumarri, which is close to the highway, ran from their houses in panic as burning splinters landed over heaps of dry hay and lit them up.
The Police were forced to close the highway for traffic as the accident spot was littered with scraps of blown up cylinders, resulting in a massive pile up of vehicles for several kilometres on either side.
Leaping flames and exploding refills kept the fire tenders at bay from the smouldering truck for several hours.
Traffic was restored only after the fire department declared the place safe to travel.
Published 19 March 2015, 19:52 IST