More than 260 dead in India after serious train crash

Train crash in India

It is one of the worst train accidents in India in recent decades.

(Photo: dpa)

New Delhi At least 288 people have died in India in one of the worst train accidents in recent decades. Hundreds were injured, Odisha state authorities said. The death toll could still rise. According to the authorities, three trains were involved in the accident, which occurred in a rural area in the Balasore district, a good 200 kilometers southwest of Kolkata, on Friday around 7 p.m. local time (3 p.m. CEST).

TV pictures the day after show the extent of the rescue work, which initially took place at night. Train wagons lie all over the place on and next to the rails. Dozens of helpers in civilian clothes and rescue workers in orange protective suits are trying desperately to rescue the injured from the heavy rubble.

The local people tell of cruel experiences. “Bodies everywhere, many missing body parts, people stuck in the wagons screaming for help,” a survivor told The Hindu newspaper. “I saw people with mutilated body parts and disfigured faces. That will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

According to local media reports, a passenger train is said to have derailed first, and another passenger train is said to have crashed into its broken-down wagons. A freight train is said to have been involved. How exactly all this happened was not clear on Saturday either. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told ANI news agency he had ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster.

The solidarity after the accident is great. Many people donated blood for the injured in hospitals on the night of the accident. “I hope this saves some lives,” a donor told ANI news agency. Odisha’s chief administrator, Pradeep Kumar Jena, said he had received many inquiries from people interested in donating blood.

Modi visits the scene of the accident

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the scene of the accident on Saturday. Shortly after the accident, his office announced – as is customary in India for infrastructure-related accidents – compensation for the relatives of the dead of 200,000 rupees (about 2,300 euros) each. The injured are said to receive around 50,000 rupees.

Politicians and heads of state expressed their condolences around the world, including the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which was hit by the Russian war of aggression. He tweeted to Modi and the victims’ families, “We share your pain of loss.”

The sight was too awful to describe. an eyewitness

Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in a telegram released by the Kremlin: “We share the grief of those who lost loved ones in this disaster and hope for a speedy recovery of all those injured.”

Pope Francis assured “his spiritual closeness to all those affected by this tragedy”. His thoughts are with the grieving relatives and the injured. He asked for the “divine gifts of courage and bravery” for the rescue workers.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on Twitter: “I am deeply shocked by the train accident in India with hundreds of dead and injured. My thoughts are with the victims, the injured and their families. Germany stands by India’s side in these difficult times.” Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also expressed his condolences. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted to Modi: “Europe mourns with you”.

Railway safety debate

In India itself, the accident has sparked a discussion about railway safety again – after the country has invested heavily in the railway after serious accidents in the past and the situation seems to have improved recently.

The most populous country with around 1.4 billion people has a large, historically grown railway network. With many old trains and track systems in need of overhaul, accidents are common. But such high numbers of victims have become rarer.

Among the worst train accidents in recent decades, killing over 100 people, were several in India, including the Kanpur 2016, Valigonda 2005, Rafiganj 2002, Gaisal 1999 and Khanna 1998 accidents. In Pakistan, in July 2005, 137 people died when three long-distance trains collided in Sarhad , in Japan in April 2005 in the Amagasaki 107 train accident, because the engine driver had not kept to the prescribed 70 kilometers per hour in a curve.

One of the worst accidents in rail traffic is the accident in Eschede in Lower Saxony, which killed 101 people – there, exactly 25 years ago, on June 3, 1998, several ICE carriages crashed into a road bridge at a speed of 200 km/h after a wheel tire broke.

The Seenigama disaster in Sri Lanka is considered the greatest rail disaster in history, where on December 26, 2004 the tsunami wave hit a full express train and killed around 1,800 people.

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