Global Courant
Rescuers waded through piles of rubble and wreckage on Saturday to extricate bodies and free people after two passenger trains derailed in India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds as railcars were flipped and maimed in one of India’s deadliest rail accidents. country in India. decades.
The accident, which occurred about 140 miles southwest of Kolkata on Friday night, led to a chaotic scene as rescuers climbed atop the wrecked trains to break doors and windows open with torches to free survivors.
About 900 people were injured in the accident in Balasore district in the eastern state of Odisha, said PK Jena, the state’s chief administrative officer. The cause was investigated.
Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of Odisha’s fire and emergency department, told The Associated Press that at least 280 bodies were recovered overnight and Saturday morning. He said more than 800 injured passengers have been taken to various hospitals, many in critical condition.
10 to 12 coaches derailed from 1 train involved
Rescue workers cut through the wrecked train cars to find people who may still be trapped. Sarangi said it was possible there were people underneath, but it was unlikely they would still be alive. Late Friday night, hundreds of people were trapped in more than a dozen wrecked carriages as rescuers tried to free them.
LOOK | A survivor recounts his injuries in the crash:
Train accident in India: hundreds dead, more injured
A survivor of the train crash said he landed at the bottom of a pile of bodies after 10 to 15 people fell on top of him.
“By 10 p.m. (on Friday) we were able to rescue the survivors. Then it was a matter of collecting dead bodies,” he said. “This is very, very tragic. I have never seen anything like it in my career.”
Ten to 12 carriages from one train derailed and debris from some of the mutilated carriages fell onto a nearby track, said Amitabh Sharma, a spokesman for the railway ministry. The debris was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, which also derailed three carriages of the second train, he added.
Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw arrives at the scene of the accident on Saturday. (AFP/Getty Images)
A third train carrying freight was also involved, the Press Trust of India reported, but there was no immediate confirmation from railway authorities. PTI said some of the derailed passenger cars hit freight train cars.
The death toll mounted steadily throughout the night as images showed shattered carriages completely overturned. Dozens of dead bodies, covered in white sheets, lay on the ground near the train tracks as locals and rescuers rushed to help the survivors.
Teams of rescuers and police continued to search the ruins on Saturday morning as the search continues amid fears the death toll is likely to rise further. Dozens of people also came to a local hospital to donate blood.
1,200 rescuers
Officials said 1,200 rescuers with 115 ambulances, 50 buses and 45 mobile health units worked through the night at the scene of the accident. Saturday was declared a day of mourning in Odisha as the chief minister of the state, Naveen Patnaik, reached the district to meet injured passengers.
Villagers said they rushed to the site to rescue people after hearing a loud noise from the train cars coming off the rails.
“The locals went out of their way to help us. Not only did they help people out, but they also collected our luggage and got us water,” PTI quoted Rupam Banerjee, a survivor, as saying.
Rescue workers are searching for survivors at the scene of the accident on Saturday. (Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images)
Passenger Vandana Kaleda said that on the train during the derailment, people “collapsed” as her carriage shook violently and went off the rails.
“When I got out of the washroom, the train suddenly overturned. I lost my balance… Everything turned upside down. People started falling on each other and I was shocked and couldn’t understand what was happening. My mind stopped working,” she said, adding that she felt lucky to survive.
Another survivor who did not give his name said he was asleep when the impact woke him up. He said he saw other passengers with broken limbs and disfigured faces.
Opposition calls for the resignation of the Minister of Railways
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his thoughts were with the bereaved.
“May the injured recover quickly,” Modi tweeted, saying he had spoken to the railway minister and “all possible help” was being offered.
Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said a high-level inquiry would be carried out as the political opposition criticized the government and called for Vaishnaw to resign.
Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur each year on India’s railways, the world’s largest single-operator train network.
In August 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in one of India’s worst rail accidents.
In 2016, a passenger train between the cities of Indore and Patna skidded off the tracks, killing 146 people.
Most train accidents are due to human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people travel across India in 14,000 trains every day, covering 40,000 miles.
