Mathura | Thirteen people died of burns, and 43 sustained injuries when a vehicle pile-up in dense fog on the Yamuna Expressway here early Tuesday turned into an inferno, according to police.

Eight buses and three smaller vehicles collided with each other in the thick fog around 4.30 am, the officer said.

The incident occurred under the Baldev Police Station jurisdiction.

"The vehicles collided due to low visibility on the Agra-to-Noida side of the Yamuna Expressway. Some vehicles also caught fire. All injured have been sent to the hospital," Mathura Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said.

Two of the deceased were identified as 44-year-old Akhilendra Pratap Yadav, a resident of Prayagraj, and 75-year-old Rampal, from Maharajganj district, Baldev Police Station SHO Ranjana Sachan said. A third, identified later by a chief medical officer from Vrindavan, was 62-year-old Sultan Ahmed, a resident of Gonda district All 13 died of burns, Sachan said.

Visuals from the spot revealed charred buses and cars, reduced to mere mangled shells.

Cranes were called in to remove them from the road.

"We are preserving the DNA of charred bodies to match them with the information provided by their relatives. We have identified three dead passengers and are contacting their relatives," Kumar said.

District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh said arrangements are being made for the last rites of those whose bodies have been identified, and treatment is being provided to the injured.

The DM ordered a four-member team to investigate the road tragedy and submit a report in two days. The committee will be headed by Additional District Magistrate (Administration) Amresh Kumar.

The SSP, who was at the site, said that an unidentified driver was booked at the Baldev Police Station.

Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr Radha Vallabh said two separate teams of doctors had been appointed for the post-mortem of the deceased and the collection of DNA samples He said that the police have delivered 17 body bags for post-mortem.

He said that some of the seriously injured had been referred to SN Medical College and Hospital in Agra, while some were referred to Delhi.

The CMO also said that by noon, a total of 43 people had been brought to the Joint District Hospital in Vrindavan for treatment. Of these, 10 were women, and 33 were men.

According to a Mathura Police statement on X, the pile-up at Milestone 127 involved seven buses and three smaller vehicles. "None of the injured are in critical condition," it said.

An injured person at a hospital said the bus was bound for Delhi. "It was fog. The bus was going to Delhi. Many people have died. I broke my back," he said, as he lay on a stretcher.

The passengers were sent to their destinations in government vehicles, the SSP said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a post on X in Hindi, expressed his condolences to the kin of the deceased.

"The loss of life in the road accident on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura district is extremely tragic and heartbreaking. My deepest condolences are with the bereaved families," he said.

"I have instructed the district administration officials to ensure proper treatment for the injured. I pray to Lord Ram to grant peace to the departed souls and a speedy recovery to the injured," Adityanath said.

According to a post from his office, the chief minister announced Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, and Rs 50,000 each to the injured.

On Monday, fog led to the deaths of three people, two of them police officers, in two separate road accidents involving multiple vehicles in Haryana's Sonipat and Nuh districts.

In the Nuh pileup, two people, including a CISF Inspector, were killed on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.

In Sonipat, a female assistant sub-inspector of police was killed when the car in which she was travelling for work hit a truck that was taking a wrong turn on the highway, police said.