India train crash: More than 230 dead after Odisha incident
Officials say no less than 233 individuals are presently known to have been killed and 900 injured in a multiple train crash in India’s eastern Odisha state.
In excess of 200 ambulances were sent off to the scene in Balasore locale, says Odisha’s central chief Pradeep Jena.
One traveler train is thought to have derailed prior to being struck by another on the adjacent track late on Friday.
It is India’s most terrible train crash of this century. Authorities say the loss of life is supposed to rise further.
Indian Railways said the two services involved were the Coromandel Express and the Howrah Superfast Express.
A sum of 233 bodies had been recovered up until this point, Mr Jena said.
He said before that in excess of 100 extra specialists had been mobilized.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was distressed by the occurrence and contemplated the bereaved families.
“Rescue ops are underway at the site of the mishap and all possible assistance is being given to those affected,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah labeled the incident “deeply agonizing”.
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 the back of my neck. When I came out of the train bogie, I saw someone had lost their hand and 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.
It is believed that several carriages from the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed at about 19:00 local time (13:30 GMT), with some of them ending up on the opposite track.
Another train – the Howrah Superfast Express traveling from Yesvantpur to Howrah – is then thought to have hit the overturned carriages.
Indian officials said that a goods train – which was stationary at the site – was also involved in the incident. They provided no further details.
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 has one of the largest train networks in the world and accidents are common, despite successive governments investing hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the infrastructure, says BBC South Asia regional editor Anbarasan Ethirajan.
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.
