At Least 261 Dead in India's Worst Train Accident in Over Two Decades
Editor
3 June 2023 22:26 WIB
Early on Saturday morning, Reuters video footage showed police officials moving bodies covered in white cloths off the railway tracks.
"I was asleep," an unidentified male survivor told NDTV news. "I was woken up by the noise of the train derailing. Suddenly I saw 10-15 people dead. I managed to come out of the coach, and then I saw a lot of dismembered bodies."
Video footage from Friday showed rescuers climbing up one of the mangled trains to find survivors, while passengers called for help and sobbed next to the wreckage.
The collision occurred around 7 p.m. (13:30 GMT) on Friday when the Howrah Superfast Express from Bengaluru to Howrah in West Bengal collided with the Coromandel Express from Kolkata to Chennai.
After an extensive search-and-rescue - involving hundreds of fire department personnel, police officers, and National Disaster Response Force teams as well as sniffer dogs - authorities have ended the rescue operation. Workers have started clearing debris to restore rail traffic.
On Friday, hundreds of young people lined up outside a government hospital in Odisha's Soro to donate blood.
According to Indian Railways, its network transports more than 13 million people every day. But the state-run monopoly has had a patchy safety record because of aging infrastructure.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik described the crash as "extremely tragic". The state has declared Saturday a day of mourning as a mark of respect to the victims.
REUTERS
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