At least 207 people have died and 900 injured, making it the world’s deadliest train crash in two decades, as rescuers battle to save survivors trapped under the debris.
Two passenger trains collided in Balasore, Odisha, eastern India on Friday, with rescuers frantically searching for others fearing they were trapped under the derailed carriages.
Footage of the tragic scene showed rescuers frantically rushing the mangled wreckage in an attempt to find survivors.
The death toll is expected to rise, Chief State Secretary Pradeep Jena said in a tweet, with Sudhanshu Sarangi, the chief executive of the Odisha Fire Department, adding that 207 bodies had been recovered so far.
Mr Sarangi added: ‘A very sad incident and the prognosis is not good.’
Rescuers at the site of a passenger at the site of overturned train carriages
People inspecting passenger train site
207 people died and 850 injured after passenger train collided with freight train in eastern India
Videos shared on social media showed several ambulances arriving and people being pulled from overturned wagons.
“I was there at the site and I can see blood, broken limbs and people dying around me,” an eyewitness told Reuters by phone.
Hundreds of youngsters lined up outside a government hospital in Soro of Odisha to donate blood.
Rescue teams have been mobilized from Bhubaneswar and Kolkata from Odisha in West Bengal, Federal Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a tweet on Friday evening.
Three National Disaster Response Force teams are at the crash site and six more teams are being mobilised, the country’s National Disaster Response Force said.
The collision happened around 7:00 p.m. local time (13:30 GMT) when the Howrah Superfast Express, running from Bangalore to Howrah, West Bengal, derailed and became entangled with the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai. said railroad officials.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said authorities’ priority was to “transfer the living to hospitals”.
The trains that crashed at Balasore, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the state capital, Bhubaneswar, were traveling in opposite directions.
Nearly 500 police and rescue workers attended the crash with 75 ambulances and buses in tow, said Pradeep Jena, Odisha state’s top bureaucrat.
Amitabh Sharma, spokesman for the railways ministry, said 10 to 12 carriages from one train had derailed, while debris from some of the mutilated carriages had fallen onto the nearby track.
Up to three cars of the second train also derailed.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “distressed” by the incident.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “Distressed by the train crash in Odisha. In this hour of mourning, my thoughts are with the bereaved families.
“May the wounded recover soon. Spoke to Minister of Railways Ashwini Waishnaw and provided an update on the situation.
“Rescue operations are underway at the crash site and all possible assistance is being provided to those affected.”
Rescuers are trying to help 200 people believed to be trapped under derailed train carriages. Pictured: People trying to escape from overturned compartments
Local depots say the Coromandel Express, which runs between Kolkata and Chennai, collided with a freight train at Balasore in eastern India
President Modi said he was ‘distressed’ by the train incident in Odisha
The collision is a “serious accident”, HK Dwivedi, chief secretary of West Bengal, told reporters.
The death toll makes it the world’s deadliest rail disaster in 20 years since a train in Sri Lanka crashed and killed more than 1,000 people in the Boxing Day tsunami.
Southeastern Railway officials, who did not want to be named, said they feared there were a large number of casualties.
Over the years, the Indian government has made efforts to improve rail safety, but despite this, several hundred accidents continue to occur each year on what is one of the largest rail networks in the world.
The worst rail accident in India’s history occurred in August 1995 in New Deli, where 358 people were killed.
Most rail accidents are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.
This is breaking news – more to follow.
