Two trains derailed in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Friday, government officials said, leaving 120 people dead and hundreds more injured in a crash that rocked the country.
Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of the fire department in Odisha, told Reuters that 120 bodies had been found. Odisha’s chief secretary, Pradeep Jena, say on Twitter that 850 others were injured.
Indian news reports described heartbreaking scenes as teams of rescuers with dogs and cutting equipment worked frantically to free the injured trapped in the train’s wreckage.
Amitabh Sharma, a spokesman for the Ministry of Railways, was quoted by The Times of India as saying that 10 to 12 carriages of a train derailed and some debris then fell onto nearby tracks, where it was struck by a convoy. another ship hit.
Video of the crash scene showed stunned onlookers, and Indian news reports said more than 50 ambulances had arrived in the area, along with teams of doctors to take care of the injured.
Ashok Samal, a shop owner, told The Hindustan Times that he was finishing his day near the train tracks in his village of Bahanaga on Friday when he heard a loud noise and ran to the upper tracks. main route between Kolkata and Chennai, and saw a pile of overturned carriages.
“There were loud screams and blood everywhere,” he told the newspaper, adding that he saw people trapped under the carriages and people screaming for help.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, said on Twitter that the National Disaster Response Force had been mobilized, along with rescue workers from the air force. Dozens of trains were cancelled.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent his condolences on Twitter. “Heartbroken over the train accident in Odisha,” he Written. “In this hour of grief, my thoughts go out to the bereaved families. I hope the injured recover soon.”
Mr Vaishnaw told Indian news agency ANI that he had ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
Indian news reports said that as news of the crash spread, along with growing reports of casualties, desperate loved ones arrived at Howrah station in West Bengal, where one of the trains was underway. towards, eager to determine the status of their loved ones.
In Howrah, one man, Sapan Chowdhury, told The Indian Express he was relieved to know that his 23-year-old daughter was still alive, even though she had been injured by shards of glass.
Indian trains transport more than 13 million people every day, by Indian Railways, but the system has been plagued by years of neglect. In 2014, there were more than 27,000 won train-related deaths, according to the country’s National Crime Records Bureau. In 2012, a committee appointed to review the safety of the rail network cited “a dismal picture of operational inefficiencies largely due to poor infrastructure and resources”. .
It recommends a series of emergency measures, including upgrading tracks, repairing bridges, eliminating flat crossings and replacing old carriages with safer ones to better protect passengers in the future. case of an accident.
Passenger safety, or lack of safety, has come under scrutiny in India in recent years. In 2016, more than 140 passengers were killed in a bus derailment near Kanpur city.
