More than 200 dead in Indian train crash

Susie Coen

AT least 207 people were killed and 900 injured in a collision involving three trains in India’s Odisha state yesterday, according to government officials.

Emergency staff were last night scrambling to rescue a further 200 passengers thought to be trapped inside the wreckage.

More than 200 ambulances were sent to the scene in Balasore district, said Odisha’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena.

Mr Jena earlier said that more than 100 extra doctors had been mobilised. Hundreds of young people lined up outside a government hospital in the city of Soro to donate blood.

The Coromandel Express passenger train, a Bengaluru-Howrah superfast express and a freight train were involved in the accident near Balasore, about 137 miles south-west of Kolkata at around 7.20pm.

Local media reports showed images of a train car toppled to one side with what appeared to be survivors on top of it, and locals pulling victims to safety.

One male survivor said: “Ten to 15 people fell on me when the accident happened. I was at the bottom of the pile. I got hurt in my hand and the back of my neck. I saw someone had lost their hand, someone had lost their leg, while someone’s face was distorted.” ‘I saw someone had lost their hand, someone had lost their leg, while someone’s face was distorted’

Amitabh Sharma, the executive director with Indian Railways, told AFP that the two passenger trains “had an active involvement in the accident” while “the third train, a goods train, which was parked at the site, also got [involved] in the accident”.

“The casualty figures from the ground or clarity on the number of injured are very difficult to assess for us at this moment,” he added.

He said 10 to 12 coaches from one train derailed, causing debris to fall on to a nearby track.

This was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, causing up to three coaches to come off the tracks. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

“Our top priority now is rescuing [the passengers] and providing health support to the injured,” Odisha state chief secretary Pradeep Jena said.

The Press Trust agency reported a death toll of at least 70.

Nearly 500 police officers and rescue workers with 75 ambulances and buses responded at the scene, Mr Jena said.

Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said he was “distressed” by the accident, writing on Twitter: “In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families.”

He said he had talked with the railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and “all possible assistance is being given”.

The Coromandel Express was travelling from Howrah in West Bengal state to Chennai, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu.

SK Panda, a spokesperson in Mr Jena’s office, told AFP that the casualties ‘We have prepared all big government and private hospitals from the accident site to the state capital to cater to the injured’ as well as the situation on the ground were “not yet clear”.

“We expect that the rescue work will continue until at least tomorrow morning. On our part, we have prepared all big government and private hospitals from the accident site to the state capital to cater to the injured,” Mr Panda said.

Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India’s railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.

In August 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in the worst accident in India’s history.

More than 12 million people travel on 14,000 trains across India every day. The network is made up of 40,000 miles of railway tracks.

Death toll after accident in eastern state set to rise amid efforts to free 200 passengers from wreckage