By Tessy Jacob
Bhubaneswar, June 3, 2023: The Catholic diocese of Balasore has plunged into the rescue and relief operations immediately after a triple train tragedy sent shock waves in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
“The response from the Church side was immediate as priests and parishioners in and around Balasore got actively involved with the rescue operations,” Father Saji Karathankal, parish priest of Cathedral Church in Balasore, told Matters India.
The accident killed around 300 people and wounded more than 800 others. It happened at around 7 pm on June 2 when the Coromandel Express and the Bengaluru- Howrah Superfast Express collided at Balasore. A goods train was also involved in the accident.
The crash happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district on the Howrah-Chennai main line in the Kharagpur division of the South Eastern Railway, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, the Odisha capital.
Father Karathankal said the rescue operations were instant as the district collector ordered all hospitals to be ready to receive the injured immediately. The injured were ferried to the hospitals in and around Balasore district. Some wounded were taken to Bhubaneswar.
Father Karathankal expressed grief at the tragedy and said volunteers from the parish, Balasore Social Service Society, and Jyoti Hospital are engaged in the rescue operations. “The scene at the tragedy is heart-wrenching,” he added.
Jyoti Hospital, managed by the Balasore diocese, and the Diocesan Social Service Society immediately joined the rescue operations, responding to the collector’s call.
The hospital hit headlines for its medical services during the first and second waves of Covid-19. Unlike other states in India, Odisha has only a few church-run hospitals.
Reports from Balasore say hundreds of local people, mostly young people, have queued up to donate blood for the accident victims.
The police made barricades at the accident site and made facilities for the free movement of ambulances. Catholic nuns, nurses and nursing students from Jyoti Hospital provided immediate medical aid to the wounded and helped shift them to different hospitals.