THEY were frantic.
The bus was filling with dense smoke but the passengers could not open the emergency door.

Early Friday morning, the long-distance bus, which was travelling from Johor to Kuala Lumpur, collided with a lorry on the North-South Highway, reported Shin Min Daily News.

The front door of the bus was crushed and the emergency door apparently had no handle, which at first left the passengers - many of whom were reportedly Singaporean - no way to escape.

One Singaporean passenger, known only as Mr Huang, 50, said he tried to open the emergency exit, but found that it was stuck.

The front door was totally bashed in and unusable, so Mr Huang said he finally climbed out of the bus by the driver's door.

Frantically, he tried to prise open the emergency door from outside the bus, but his efforts were in vain.

It is not clear why the other passengers didn't leave the bus by the driver's door.

The bus driver finally found the emergency door's handle from somewhere in the back of the bus, and the passengers were finally able to escape.

DIED

The 2.30am incident took place at the 271.4km mark, near the Seremban rest stop.

One passenger, a Malaysian, later died in hospital. Of the eight injured, five passengers - including a 7-year-old Singapore boy - suffered fractures to their arms and legs.

Most of the passengers had been sitting in the middle section of the bus. Some of their legs were crushed by the bus seats.

It was a bloody sight.

It is not clear how many passengers the bus was carrying, but it was reported that the bus was full.

The bus had started its journey at 11.30pm and was scheduled to arrived in KL at 4.30am.

It was travelling on the centre lane of the highway but, for reasons unknown, it veered into the slow lane where the lorry was travelling.

The lorry driver, Mr Yang, 52, who is from Penang, said he had just unloaded goods from Singapore in Penang.

The impact of the crash sent his vehicle hurtling some 30m down the highway.