Kanpur: At least 120 people were killed in their sleep and nearly 200 injured after the Indore-Patna Express train jumped the tracks near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on November 20, wrecking most of the coaches.
Fourteen coaches of the train travelling with more than 500 passengers rolled off track a little after 3 am in Pukhraya, 60 km from Kanpur, when most passengers were sleeping.
TV visuals showed the coaches smashed up against each other and rescue workers trying to cut through crumpled metal to pull out trapped passengers.
Witnesses were jolted awake when they heard a bang and were thrown around. “We heard a deafening noise… I am lucky to be alive and safe,” a passenger said.
More bodies were pulled out from the two coaches that fell on the side, said Daljeet Singh Choudhary, a senior police officer. Hours after the crash, a team of army personnel, doctors joined some 250 rescue workers.
Many survivors were moved to a nearby town so they could leave by trains or buses.
It is feared that the number of deaths will rise because rescuers have not been able to access one of the coaches.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “anguished beyond words” and added that he had spoken to Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu who was monitoring the situation closely.
In tweets, Suresh Prabhu said he had ordered an inquiry and “strictest possible action will be taken against those who could be responsible.”
Top railway officials said a fault in the tracks may have caused the accident, which, they said, was the worst they had seen in a long time.
Indian Railways is the world’s fourth largest network, ferrying more than 20 million each day. Another train accident in Uttar Pradesh in March last year left 39 dead and injured 150.
Major train accidents in India:
Bihar, 6 Jun 1981: 250 deaths confirmed as passenger train derails on a bridge and plunges into the Baghmati river.
Hundreds more are never found, with an estimated death toll ranging from 500 to 800 Firozabad, 20 Aug 1995:
358 people are killed as an express train hits a stationary express train Gaisal, Assam, 2 Aug 1999:
At least 290 killed as two trains carrying a total of 2,500 people collide Khanna, 26 Nov 1998: At least 212 killed as a train collides with a derailed train Rafiganj, 10 Sept 2002:
Rajdhani Express derails on bridge, killing at least 130 West Midnapore, West Bengal, 28 May 2010: The Calcutta-Mumbai passenger train derails, killing at least 100.
Police blame Maoist sabotage of the track Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that India’s National Disaster Response Force was overseeing the rescue efforts.
Kanpur is a major railway junction and hundreds of trains pass through it every day.
source:bbc