GUIYANG, Feb. 27 -- Five people were killed and 32 others injured in a fire that broke out in a bus on Thursday afternoon in Guiyang City, southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said.

The city's publicity department said on its official Weibo account "Weiboguiyang" the number of injured had risen to 32, two more than previously reported.

The fire broke out at around 1 p.m. when Bus 237 was passing by a primary school in the northern part of Guiyang, the provincial capital.

The fire has been completely put out and the injured have been hospitalized.

A witness told a Xinhua reporter at the scene that a passenger escaped from the bus as it was burning.

Pictures posted on China's Twitter-like service Sina Weibo showed the vehicle was engulfed in flames with thick black smoke surging toward the sky, and firemen later doused the burning vehicle with hoses.

Other witnesses said at least 50 passengers were on the bus.

Locals said Bus 237 that runs between downtown and the new city was always crowded.

"I could not get on the bus at an earlier station because it was overcrowded," "Huhu" posted in an online forum.

Police have cordoned off the site and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

The city's publicity department said on Jan. 14, 2013 all 1,850 buses had started using liquefied natural gas instead of gasoline for green purposes.