At least 207 people have died with 900 injured making it the world’s deadliest train crash in two decades, as rescuers battle to save survivors trapped underneath debris.
Two passenger trains collided in Balasore, Odisha, East India on Friday, with rescuers frantically searching for others feared trapped under the carriages that have been derailed.
Images from the tragic scene showed rescuers frantically scrambling up the mangled wreck in an attempt to find surivors.
The death toll is expected to rise, state Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said in a tweet, with Sudhanshu Sarangi, the director general of the fire department in Odisha adding 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 the toppled train carriages
People inspecting the site of the passenger train
207 people have died with 850 injured after a passenger train collided with a freight train in East India
Last night’s train disaster in Balasore is the worst train accidents in the world for 20 years
Videos shared on social media showed the arrival of several ambulances and people being pulled out of the upturned train coaches.
‘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 young people lined up outside a government hospital in Odisha’s Soro to donate blood.
Rescue teams have been mobilised from Odisha’s Bhubaneswar and Kolkata in West Bengal, federal Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a tweet late on Friday.
Three National Disaster Response Force teams are at the site of the accident, and six more teams are being mobilised, the country’s National Disaster Response Force said.
The collision occurred at about 7pm 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, railway officials said.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said authorities’ priority was ‘removing the living to the hospitals’.
The trains which crashed in Balasore is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the state capital Bhubaneswar had been travelling in opposite directions.
Nearly 500 police officers and rescue workers attended the accident with 75 ambulances and buses in tow, Pradeep Jena, the top bureaucrat of the Odisha state said.
Amitabh Sharma, a railroad ministry spokesperson, said that 10 to 12 coaches of one train had been derailed, while debris from some of the mangled coaches had fallen onto the nearby track.
Up to three coaches of the second train also derailed.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was ‘distressed’ by the incident.
Writing on Twitter he said: ‘Distressed by the train accident in Odisha. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families.
‘May the injured recover soon. Spoke to Railway Minister Ashwini Waishnaw and took stock of the situation.
‘Rescue operations are underway at the site of the mishap and all possible assistance is being given those affected.’
Rescuers are trying to help 200 people who are reportedly trapped under derailed train carriages. Pictured: People trying to escape from the toppled compartments
Local repots say the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, collided with a freight train in Balasore, East India
President Modi said he was ‘distressed’ by the train incident in Odisha
The collision is a ‘grave accident’, H K Dwivedi, West Bengal’s chief secretary told reporters.
The death toll makes it the world’s deadliest train disaster in 20 years, since a train in Sri Lanka crashed and killed more than 1,000 during the Boxing Day tsunami.
South Eastern Railway officials, who did not want to be named, said they fear there will a large number of casualties.
Over the years, India’s government has made efforts to improve rail safety, but despite this several hundreds of accidents still continue to occur annually on what is one of the largest train networks in the world.
The worst train accident in India’s history happened in August 1995 in New Deli, where 358 people were killed.
Most train accidents are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.
This is a breaking news story – more follows.
