India train crash: More than 260 dead after Odisha accidenton June 3, 2023 at 9:50 am

At least 238 people have been killed and 650 are injured in a crash involving three trains in India’s eastern Odisha state, officials say.

One passenger train derailed and its coaches fell on to the adjacent track where they were struck by an incoming train on Friday evening.

Indian Railways said the two services involved were the Coromandel Express and the Howrah Superfast Express.

Officials say it is India’s worst train crash this century.

Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, had earlier said that the death toll stood at 288, but officials later said 238 people had died.

But the toll is expected to rise as many passengers are still thought to be trapped in the wreckage and on Saturday morning, rescuers were working hard to reach them.

More than 200 ambulances and hundreds of doctors, nurses and rescue personnel were sent to the scene in Balasore district, the state’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena said.

Drone footage shot at the accident site showed several of the coaches had detached from the train and tipped on the side – a few others are completely overturned.

“The force with which the trains collided has resulted in several coaches being crushed and mangled. We are trying to cut through the wreckage to reach the passengers. We also have to be careful to not hurt those alive,” Atul Karwal, chief of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) told news agency ANI.

He said this was “the third deadliest crash in the history of Indian railways”.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is at the site of the accident and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit the injured in the hospital later on Saturday.

One male survivor said that “10 to 15 people fell on me when the accident happened and everything went haywire. I was at the bottom of the pile.

“I got hurt in my hand and also the back of my neck. When I came out of the train bogie, I saw someone had lost their hand, someone had lost their leg, while someone’s face was distorted,” the survivor told India’s ANI news agency.

A day of mourning has been announced in the state.

Officials said several carriages from the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed at about 19:00 local time (13:30 GMT), hit a stationary goods train and several of its coaches ended up on the opposite track.

Another train – the Howrah Superfast Express travelling from Yesvantpur to Howrah – then hit the overturned carriages.

Residents of the neighbouring villages were among the first to reach the site of the accident and start the rescue operation.

Some surviving passengers were seen rushing in to help rescue those trapped in the wreckage.

Local bus companies were also helping to transport wounded passengers.

India’s worst train disaster was in 1981, when an overcrowded passenger train was blown off the tracks and into a river during a cyclone in Bihar state, killing at least 800 people.

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