2023-06-03 09:11:51
At least 207 people were killed and 900 injured after two passenger trains collided in Odisha on Friday, according to Indian state government officials, in India’s deadliest rail accident in more than a decade.
The death toll is expected to rise, Chief Secretary of State Pradeep Jena said in a tweet.
Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of the Odisha fire department, told Reuters that 207 bodies had been recovered so far.
Footage from the scene shows rescuers clambering over the twisted wreckage of one of the convoys in search of survivors.
“I was there at the scene and I could see blood, broken limbs and people dying around me,” a witness told Reuters by telephone.
Rescue teams have been deployed from Bhubaneswar in Odisha and Kolkata in West Bengal, Federal Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a tweet.
The collision took place around 7 pm local time when the Howrah Superfast Express, which was traveling from Bangalore to Howrah in West Bengal, derailed and collided with the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, railway officials said.
Rescue operations were ongoing at the site and “all possible assistance” is being given to those affected, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.
By Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru, Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar and Subrata Nag Choudhury
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