'I couldn't recognise my parents as their faces were completely burnt'

When 37-year-old Shilpa Sharma left her house at 5.30 am in the morning, she thought she had stepped into a ghost town — all she saw was layers of thick, black smoke, while the acrid smell had taken over the neighbourhood.

- Senjuti Sengupta

JAIPUR: When 37-year-old Shilpa Sharma left her house at 5.30 am in the morning, she thought she had stepped into a ghost town — all she saw was layers of thick, black smoke, while the acrid smell had taken over the neighbourhood.

"Our house is just 2km away from the site of the accident. It was around 5.30 am that I was woken up by the smell of some gas and then I heard an explosion. Before I could even see what it was, a kid [Dev Sharma] from my neighbourhood called me asking for help," Shilpa said, recalling the horror after a truck crashed into an LPG tanker taking a U-turn, triggering a fireball that engulfed close to 34 vehicles, killing at least 11 people and leaving several more battling for their lives with severe burns.