Foreign

India Train Crash Leaves More Than 260 Dead

By Web News 1627

At least 261 people have been killed and 650 are injured in a crash involving three trains in India’s eastern Odisha state, officials say.

One passenger train derailed and its coaches fell on to the adjacent track where they were struck by an incoming train on Friday evening. A freight train was stationary.

The death toll is expected to rise, as many are still trapped in the wreckage.

The cause of India’s worst train crash this century is not yet clear.

Officials said several carriages from the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed at about 19:00 (13:30 GMT) in Balasore district, hit a stationary goods train and several of its coaches ended up on the opposite track.

Another train – the Howrah Superfast Express travelling from Yesvantpur to Howrah – then hit the overturned carriages.

“The force with which the trains collided has resulted in several coaches being crushed and mangled. We are trying to cut through the wreckage to reach the passengers. We also have to be careful to not hurt those alive,” Atul Karwal, chief of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) told news agency ANI.

He said this was “the third deadliest crash in the history of Indian railways”.

More than 200 ambulances and hundreds of doctors, nurses and rescue personnel were sent to the scene, the state’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena said.

Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, had earlier said 288 had died.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is at the site of the accident and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit the injured in the hospital later on Saturday.

One male survivor said that “10 to 15 people fell on me when the accident happened and everything went haywire. I was at the bottom of the pile.

“I got hurt in my hand and also the back of my neck. When I came out, I saw someone had lost their hand, someone had lost their leg, while someone’s face was distorted,” the survivor told India’s ANI news agency.

A day of mourning has been announced in the state.

India’s deadly train crashes

  • June 1981: Nearly 800 people died when seven of the nine coaches of an overcrowded train fell into a river during a cyclone
  • August 1995: At least 350 people are killed when two trains collide 200km (125 miles) from Delhi
  • August 1999: Two trains collide near Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) killing at least 285 people
  • October 2005: 77 people are killed when a train derails in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh
  • November 2016: Nearly 150 people are killed and an equal number are injured when 14 carriages of the Indore-Patna Express train derail near the city of Kanpur

Residents of the neighbouring villages were among the first to reach the site of the accident and start the rescue operation.

Some surviving passengers were seen rushing in to help rescue those trapped in the wreckage.

Local bus companies were also helping to transport wounded passengers.

India has one of the largest train networks in the world with millions of passengers using it daily, but a lot of the railway infrastructure needs improving.

India’s worst train disaster was in 1981, when an overcrowded passenger train was blown off the tracks and into a river during a cyclone in Bihar state, killing at least 800 people.

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Foreign

Taiwan Train Crash Leaves 48 Dead, Dozens Injured

By Web News 645

A busy passenger train carrying 490 people has derailed in a tunnel in eastern Taiwan, killing at least 48 and injuring dozens more, authorities said, as rescue efforts to free those trapped continue.

The eight car train, traveling to Taitung, came off the rails in a tunnel just north of Hualien Friday morning, causing several carriages to hit the wall of the tunnel, the government-run Central News Agency (CNA) reported, citing the fire department.

The train driver is among the 48 dead, the fire department told the country’s executive office. 66 survivors are being treated in at least six hospitals in the surrounding Hualien County, and rescue efforts are ongoing to free any passengers still stuck in carriages that were badly damaged in the accident.

The inside of the tunnel where the train crashed on April 2, north of Hulien, Taiwan.

The derailment could have been caused by a vehicle which slipped from a slope near the tunnel and hit the moving train, according to CNA.

A video on social media showed parts of an industrial vehicle heavy equipment, along with what looks like a car door beside the derailed train. In the video, a man can be heard saying, “Our train hit the truck. Where is this place? Qingshui Tunnel, the accident happened at Qingshui Tunnel.

The train hit the truck, the truck fell off. It’s lucky that I was at the later carriage — I was at the fourth carriage.”

“Is everyone out in carriage four?” a woman is heard shouting from inside the tunnel, in videos provided by the fire department.

Passengers are helped to climb out of the train in Hualien County, Taiwan, on April 2.

Images of the crash scene show carriages inside the tunnel crumbled and ripped apart from the impact; passengers gathering suitcases and bags in a tilted, derailed carriage and others walking along the tracks littered with wreckage.

Photos show the rescue operation underway, with passengers walking on top of the train to leave the tunnel and being helped down.

At least 156 people were injured in the crash, a local government official said during a news conference.

The official said rescuers believed there was no one left in the train, but that rescue efforts would continue and authorities were checking to see if anyone was still unaccounted for.

“In response to a train derailment in Hualien, Taiwan, our emergency services have been fully mobilized to rescue & assist the passengers & railway staff affected,” Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Twitter.

“We will continue to do everything we can to ensure their safety in the wake of this heartbreaking incident.”

The accident coincided just as a long weekend kicked off for the Tomb Sweeping Day public holiday.

One couple who were on the train told CNA they were on their way to Taitung to sweep tombs and pay their respects to deceased family members, as is traditional for the event.

The train was so full that many people were standing.

The crash site is located just east of the picturesque Taroko National Park, a popular tourist destination on the country’s mountainous east coast.

In 2018, 18 people died and 175 were injured when a train derailed in northeastern Taiwan, in the island’s worst rail disaster in more than three decades.

CNN

 

Foreign

At Least 32 Killed in Egypt Train Crash

By Web News 827

At least 32 people have been killed and more than 60 injured in a train crash in southern Egypt, the country’s railway authority says.

Two carriages were derailed and overturned when two passenger trains collided in the province of Sohag.

Emergency brakes were activated on the train in front by “unknown individuals”, causing the train behind to crash into it, the authority said.

Officials are investigating the cause of the crash.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said there would be serious consequences for anyone found responsible.

“Anyone who caused this painful accident through negligence or corruption, or anything similar, must receive a deterrent punishment without exception or delay,” he tweeted.

Photos from the scene show carriages overturned near a channel of water.

In a statement, the health ministry statement said that in addition to the fatalities, at least 66 people had been injured. A ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency that the number injured was 91.

“We need an official to come see what has happened. They can’t remove the people from underneath the trains,” a man at the scene told Reuters, adding that a crane was needed to help with rescue efforts.

“People are dead, we can’t even save the ones who are alive.”

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly is travelling to the site of the crash with the ministers, state media reported.

Egypt has seen frequent accidents on its railway system due in part to poor maintenance and lack of investment.

One of the deadliest train disasters occurred in 2002 when 373 people died when a fire broke out in a carriage travelling south of Cairo.

BBC.