At least 120 dead, 850 hurt in fresh rail crash
At least 120 people were killed, more than 850 more were injured and many others are feared trapped after a grisly three- train collision late Friday in eastern Indiaās Odisha state, local officials said.
Images broadcast on local stations showed smashed train compartments torn open with blood-stained holes of twisted metal, and scores of passengers lying beside the tracks near Balasore, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the state capital Bhubaneswar.
āWe have more than 120 deaths per the last count and the number is increasing as there are a lot of serious injuries, head injuries,ā Sudhanshu Sarangi, director General of Odisha Fire Services, told AFP from the accident site.
āA very sad incident and the prognosis is not goodā.
Odisha stateās chief secretary Pradeep Jena confirmed that āabout 850 injured people have been sent to hospitalsā, with rescue work ongoing.
āOur top priority now is rescuing (the passengers) and providing health support to the injured,ā he said.
Amitabh Sharma, executive director with the Indian Railways, told AFP that two passenger trains āhad an active involvement in the accidentā while āthe third train, a goods train, which was parked at the site, also got (involved) in the accidentā. With rescuers at the crash site pulling the wounded out of the wreckage, fears mounted that the toll could still rise.
āThe casualty figures from the ground or clarity on the number of injured is very difficult to assess for us at this moment,ā Sharma said, amid reports that many passengers were still trapped under mangled rail cars.
Anil Kumar Mohanty, a medical officer in Balasore, told AFP that āwe have rushed doctors and medical staff to the accident siteā.
One survivor told local TV news reporters that he had sleeping when the accident happened, and woke to find himself trapped under around a dozen fellow passengers, before somehow crawling out of the carriage with only injuries to his neck and arm.
Another TV station showed graphic images of a train car toppled to one side of the track, as residents tried to pull victims to safety.
SK Panda, a spokesperson in Jenaās office in Odisha state, called it āa heavy accidentā.
āWe expect that the rescue work will continue till at least tomorrow morning,ā Panda said. āOn our part, we have prepared all big government and private hospitals from the accident site to the state capital to cater to the injuredā.
The spokesperson added that authorities had already rushed ā75 ambulances to the site and had also deployed many busesā to transport both the injured passengers and survivors from the site.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was ādistressed by the train accidentā.
āIn this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soonā, Modi said on Twitter, adding that he had spoken to railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to take āstock of the situationā.
Vaishnaw said that he was rushing to the accident site. āRescue teams mobilised from Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, National Disaster Response Force, state government teams and air force also mobilised. Will take all hands required for the rescue ops,ā he said on Twitter.
India is no stranger to railway accidents and has seen several such incidents in the past, but railway safety ā thanks to massive new investments and upgrades in technology ā has improved significantly in recent years.
Vanguard
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