Global Courant
NEW DELHI — Two passenger trains derailed in India on Friday, killing more than 200 people and trapping hundreds more in more than a dozen damaged rail cars, officials said.
The top bureaucrat in the eastern state of Odisha, Pradeep Jena, announced the death toll in a tweet.
Fire Chief Sudhanshu Sarangi told the Press Trust of India that more than 800 people were injured. He said the number of fatalities is likely to rise.
The accident happened about 220 kilometers (137 mi) southwest of Kolkata, officials said. The cause was investigated.
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, and up to three carriages from the second train also derailed, Sharma said.
The Press Trust reported that a third train of freight was also involved, but there was no immediate confirmation from railway authorities. According to the Press Trust report, some of the derailed passenger cars hit freight train cars.
In the aftermath, television footage showed rescuers climbing atop the wreckage to break down doors and windows and using torches to free survivors.
Passenger Vandana Kaleda told the New Delhi Television news channel that she saw “people falling on each other” as her coach shook violently and went off the rails. She said she was 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.
Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde, the top administrator in Balasore district, said at least 50 people were killed. The Press Trust reported a death toll of at least 70.
Nearly 500 police officers and rescuers with 75 ambulances and buses arrived at the scene, said Pradeep Jena, the top bureaucrat of Odisha state.
Rescue workers tried to free 200 people trapped in the wreckage, Shinde said.
The Press Trust said the derailed Coromandel Express was en route from Howrah in West Bengal state to Chennai, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
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.
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 the worst rail crash in India’s history.
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.
