The apparent accident killing at least 52 people occurred on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT). The Kazakh Interior Ministry, however, provided no details yet about the cause of the fire.

The bus traveling between the Russian city of Samara and Shymkent, a city in southern Kazakhstan close to the Uzbek border was on a route often used by migrant workers heading for jobs on building sites in Russia. It is not known in which direction the bus, a Hungarian-made Ikarus, was heading when it burst into flames.

A statement released by the emergency officials said only five people had managed to escape from the burning vehicle.The bus was

Video footage on the Internet showed a bus positioned diagonally across a two-lane freeway in the middle of a snow-covered steppe, in flames and emitting heavy black smoke. Another photograph posted online showed the bus completely burnt out.

A statement from Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said members of its embassy staff were en route to the area, which is roughly midway between the Aral Sea and the Russian border.

Thursday's fire was one of the deadliest bus tragedies in the last five years. Last October, another Kazakh-operated bus carrying over 50 Uzbeks was hit by a train in Russia after getting stuck on the Tracks. That accident claimed the lives of 17 people. Earlier this year, dozens of people were killed when a when bus in Peru plunged off a cliff. 

av/sms (Reuters, DPA, AP)