NEW DELHI — Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more were injured after a passenger train derailed in eastern India on Friday, trapping many people inside its derailed coaches, officials said.
Authorities have yet to release an official death toll.
Over 350 people have been admitted to hospitals across the district, officials said, adding that all private and government hospitals have been put on alert in the nearby districts, including Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar.
The cause of the accident, which happened in eastern India, about 137 miles southwest of Kolkata, was under investigation. was under investigation.
Nearly 500 police officers and rescue workers with 75 ambulances and buses responded to the accident, said Pradeep Jena, the top bureaucrat of the Odisha state.
Rescuers were attempting to free 200 people feared trapped in the wreckage, said D.B. Shinde, administrator of the state’s Balasore district.
Amitabh Sharma, a railroad ministry spokesperson, said 10 to 12 coaches of one train derailed, and debris from some of the mangled coaches fell onto a nearby track. It was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction.
Up to three coaches of the second train also derailed.
The Press Trust of India news agency said the derailed Coromandel Express was traveling from Howrah in West Bengal state to Chennai, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu state.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was distressed by the accident.
“In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon,” tweeted Modi, who said he had spoken to the railway minister and that “all possible assistance” was being offered.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said he was rushing to the accident site, while Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is expected to get there Saturday morning.
Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India’s railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.
In November 2016, more than 100 people were killed when 14 coaches of an passenger train rolled off the track in northern India.
In August 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in the worst train accident in India’s history.
Most train accidents are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 40,000 miles of track.
Mithil Aggarwal contributed.
