Varanasi, Sep 19 (IANS): A woman, upset at not being able to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit here, torched a bus carrying passengers to Lucknow on Wednesday, police said.

However, before the fire could spread, the passengers of the Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) luxury bus got out safely.

The woman, identified as Vandana Raghuvanshi, was arrested. She has been demanding the carving out of a separate Poorvanchal state from Uttar Pradesh.

The incident occurred at the Cantonment bus station here early in the day.

An eyewitness said she sprinkled petrol on the bus and set it afire. The Volvo bus was gutted. It took firemen more than an hour to douse the flames.

Raghuvanshi was on an indefinite fast to press for her demand since August 15. When her condition worsened she was force-fed on August 29, Varanasi Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar Singh told IANS.

Modi was in his parliamentary constituency on Monday and Tuesday as he celebrated his 68th birthday on September 17 and launched many projects the next day.