Rescuers searched to pull survivors from the wreckage after three trains collided in eastern India, leaving more than 260 people dead and hundreds injured in the country’s deadliest rail accident in nearly three decades.
(Bloomberg) — Rescuers searched to pull survivors from the wreckage after three trains collided in eastern India, leaving more than 260 people dead and hundreds injured in the country’s deadliest rail accident in nearly three decades.
Television footage showed searchers carrying gas torches and electric cutters, working overnight to find passengers still trapped in the mangled train carriages littered across the tracks. Rescue and restoration operations by the National Disaster Response Force, firemen and medical teams continued throughout Saturday.
The fatalities from the incident rose to 261 by Saturday morning, Indian Railways said in a statement. More than 650 injured passengers have been taken to hospitals.
The catastrophe occurred Friday evening when some coaches of an express train derailed near Balasore in the eastern state of Odisha, falling onto a side track. Another express train coming from the opposite direction hit the carriages, causing its coaches to crash into a stationary goods train, according to Times of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that his thoughts are with the bereaved families and said “all possible assistance is being given to those affected.” He has convened a meeting to review the situation, and will travel Saturday to the accident site and hospital. The Odisha government has ordered a state of mourning.
India’s rail network, one of the largest in the world, carries hundreds of millions of passengers each month but also suffers from scores of accidents. Most are blamed on outdated signaling equipment or human error. About 3,000 people have been killed in train accidents since 2000. In 1995, more than 300 people died in a collision between two trains near the northern town of Agra.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik have visited the site.
–With assistance from Pratik Parija and Debjit Chakraborty.
(Updates with death toll and details starting from first paragraph.)
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