The country’s biggest rail catastrophe in more than two decades, the collision of two Indian passenger trains in Odisha state has resulted in 288 deaths and more than 850 injuries, a state government official told AFP on Saturday.
One passenger train is thought to have derailed before being struck by another on the adjacent track late on Friday.
Indian Railways said the two services involved were the Coromandel Express and the Howrah Superfast Express. The number of fatalities is anticipated to increase, according to officials.
More than 200 ambulances were sent to the scene in Balasore district, Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said on Twitter .
Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, also said that “rescue work is still going on” and there were “a lot of serious injuries.
“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 at about 19:00 local time (1330 GMT) on Friday when the Howrah Superfast Express, running from Bangalore to Howrah, West Bengal, collided with the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai.
Authorities have given different information regarding which train derailed first and became entangled with the other. The Ministry of Railways announced that it has opened an investigation into the event.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted he was distressed by the incident and his thoughts were with the bereaved families.
An extensive search-and-rescue operation has been mounted, involving hundreds of fire department personnel and police officers as well as sniffer dogs. National Disaster Response Force teams were also at the site.
On Friday, hundreds of young people lined up outside a government hospital in Odisha’s Soro to donate blood.
Over 13 million people are transported across the Indian Railways network every day, according to the Indian Railways. However, because of its old infrastructure, the government-owned monopoly has had a poor safety record.
To pay tribute to the victims, the state has proclaimed Saturday a day of national mourning.
The deadliest railway catastrophe in Indian history happened in Bihar state in 1981 when a train fell over a bridge and into a river, killing an estimated 800 persons.