Man killed in bus fire in Bat Yam parking lot; police investigate arson suspicion

A Sudanese national was found dead inside a bus that went up in flames Saturday in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, as part of a larger fire that broke out in a parking lot for reasons still unknown to authorities.

The victim, a man in his 30s, was found by firefighters as they worked to extinguish the blazes.

Paramedics who treated the man said he was found unconscious and covered in soot inside one of the buses, having sustained severe burns to his body and inhaled smoke from the fire. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim was homeless and had sought shelter in the bus, which had been parked in the Bat Yam terminal for the night, Hebrew outlets reported.

Tel Aviv District police commander Haim Sargarof said officers received a report around 5:30 p.m. of four burning buses, and five fire crews were dispatched to the bus lot.

“The firefighters and police who arrived at the scene began to deal with the incident, during which they discovered a corpse in a bus,” the senior officer said Saturday evening after a situation assessment.

“From the initial findings, this is not a terrorist incident, rather an incident that could be criminal,” he continued, adding that authorities were still “examining the circumstances of the ignition and trying to understand how exactly the bus went up in flames.”

Police as of Sunday morning were still trying to assess whether the incident was caused by a deliberate act of arson or a technical malfunction.

According to Sargarof, police were not investigating the fire as a targeted murder, since the slain victim had not been in the first bus to catch fire.

“We are assuming that there was no intent to harm him [specifically],” said the officer.