Passenger trains derail in India, killing at least 120, trapping many others

Two passenger trains and a goods train collided in an accident in the city of Balasore in Odisha state, according to a video statement by state chief secretary Pradeep Jena.

From the scene of the rescue operation, the Director General of the state’s fire services told Indian news agency ANI that more than “more than 120 dead bodies” had been recovered, and that he believed the death toll “might go up”.

Over 400 injured people have been taken to different hospitals, Sudhanshu Sarangi said, adding that the evacuation of the wounded had completed and they were for more dead bodies.

“The state government has provided all the resources that were needed and we have completed the evacuation of the injured,” Sarangi said.

“Now it’s a question of locating some more dead bodies which might trapped under these compartments”.

Friday’s rescue effort included more than 115 ambulances and several fire service units, say authorities, who have yet to look at the cause of the multi-train accident as their main priority is rescue operations, Jena told CNN affiliate News18.

“We are only working (at) sending additional doctors, ambulances, buses, so all those things we are doing so we have not thought of asking what happened, how it happened,” he said.

One of trains involved in the accident is the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel express, carrying passengers from West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of the state of West Bengal, said on Twitter.

The train travels through India’s east coast, between West Bengal’s capital Kolkata to the South Indian city of Chennai.

The crash has shocked the country, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting his condolences.

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“Distressed by the train accident in Odisha. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon.

“Rescue ops are underway at the site of the mishap and all possible assistance is being given to those affected,” he wrote.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said he will visit the site of the accident on Saturday morning to review the situation, the department said.

India’s Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology announced that about $18,329 will be provided as compensation to victims’ families in the case of death, and $3665 will be provided for individuals with grievous injuries, and $915 will be given to people with minor injuries from the accident.

India’s extensive rail network suffers from aging infrastructure and poor maintenance – factors that are often responsible for accidents.

In 2021, some 16,431 people were killed in nearly 18,000 railway accidents across the country.

“Majority (67.7 per cent) of railway accident cases were reported (as) ‘Fall from trains /collision with people on track,” according to a 2021 report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

One of the most deadly incidents of recent years occurred in November 2016, when more than 140 people were killed after several train cars derailed in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The following November, at least 39 people died and 50 others were seriously injured in a train derailment in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.