Global Courant
Rescue workers have found no survivors in the overturned and mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds in one of the country’s deadliest train crashes in decades, officials said Saturday.
Chaotic scenes erupted after Friday night’s derailment about 220 kilometers (137 mi) southwest of Kolkata, as rescuers climbed atop the wrecked trains to smash doors and windows with cutting torches.
The death toll rose steadily throughout the night. Dozens of bodies, covered in white sheets, lay on the ground near the tracks as locals and rescuers rushed to free the hundreds of people trapped in the train cars beneath the twisted metal and broken glass. Army soldiers and Air Force helicopters joined the effort.
An Associated Press photographer spotted bodies still tangled in a badly mutilated carriage as rescuers struggled to retrieve them under the oppressive heat with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius (96 degrees Fahrenheit).
“By 10pm (on Friday), we were able to rescue the survivors. After that, it was a matter of collecting dead bodies,” Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of fire and emergency services of Odisha state, told The Associated Press. “This is very, very tragic. I have never seen anything like it in my career.”
At least 280 bodies were recovered overnight and Saturday morning, he said. About 900 people were injured and the cause is under investigation.
The accident came at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was focusing on modernizing the British colonial-era rail network in India, which has become the world’s most populous country with 1.42 billion people. 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.
Modi flew to the crash site and spent half an hour researching the relief efforts and talking to rescue officials. He was seen giving instructions to officials in New Delhi over the phone.
He later visited a hospital where he walked around informing doctors about the treatment being given to the injured, talking to some of them, going from bed to bed in a ward.
Modi told reporters it was a sad moment and he felt the pain of those who suffered in the accident. He said the government would do its utmost to help them and would severely punish those responsible.
Modi was due to inaugurate a high-speed train between Goa and Mumbai on Saturday equipped with a collision avoidance system. The event was canceled after Friday’s accident. The derailed trains did not have that system.
Amitabh Sharma, a spokesman for the Ministry of Railways, said the rescue work was nearing completion. Railway authorities will begin removing the wreckage to restore track and resume train operations, he said.
About 200 of the seriously injured were transferred to specialized hospitals in other cities in Odisha, said PK Jena, the state’s top administrative officer. Another 200 were discharged after receiving medical attention and the rest were treated in local hospitals, he added. Countless people also showed up to donate blood.
“The challenge now is to identify the bodies. Where the relatives can provide evidence, the bodies are turned over after autopsies. If they are not identified, we may have to undergo DNA testing and other protocols,” he said.
According to Sharma, ten to twelve carriages from one train derailed, and debris from some of the mutilated carriages fell onto a nearby track. The debris was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, which also derailed three carriages of the second train, he added.
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 rescue operation was delayed because two train cars were pushed together by the impact of the accident, Jena said.
Officials said 1,200 rescuers worked through the night with 115 ambulances, 50 buses and 45 mobile health units. Saturday was declared a day of mourning in Odisha.
Villagers said they rushed to the site to evacuate people after hearing a loud noise from the train cars coming off the tracks.
“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.
Passenger Vandana Kaleda said people fell on each other when 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.
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.
Two trains were involved in the collision: the Coromandel Express traveling from Howrah in West Bengal state to Chennai in Tamil Nadu state and the Howrah Superfast Express traveling from Bengaluru in Karnataka to Howrah, officials said. It was not immediately clear who derailed first.
Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said a high-level inquiry would be conducted. The political opposition criticized the government and called for Vaishnaw to resign.
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 ride in 14,000 trains every day across India, on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 mi) of track.
