BALASORE, India (AP) — Rescuers have found no survivors in the overturned and mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds in one of the nation’s deadliest railroad crashes. for decades, officials said Saturday.
Chaotic scenes erupted on Friday night as rescuers climbed atop the wrecked trains to break out doors and windows using cutting torches.
The death toll continued to rise throughout the night. Dozens of bodies, covered in white sheets, lay on the ground near the tracks as locals and rescuers raced to free hundreds of people trapped in cars under twisted and broken metal. glass. Army soldiers and air force helicopters joined the effort in Odisha state.
An Associated Press photographer saw bodies still trapped in a badly damaged coach, as rescuers struggled to get them out working under oppressive heat with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius ( 96 degrees Fahrenheit).
“At 10 pm (Friday) we rescued the survivors. After that it’s about getting the dead bodies,” Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of Odisha’s state fire and emergency department, told The Associated Press. “This is very, very tragic. I have never seen anything like this in my career. “
At least 280 bodies were recovered overnight and into Saturday morning, he said. About 900 people were injured and the cause is still being investigated.
The accident happened at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was focusing on modernizing the British colonial-era railway network in India, which has become the world’s most populous country with 1.42 billion. Despite the government’s efforts to improve railway safety, several hundred accidents occur every year of Indian railways, the largest railway network under one management in the world.
Modi flew to the crash site and spent half an hour inspecting the relief effort and talking to rescue officials. He was seen giving instructions over the phone to officials in New Delhi.
Soon he visited a hospital where he walked around asking from the doctors about the treatment given to the wounded, and talked to some of them, moving from bed to bed in a ward.
Modi told reporters that it was a sad moment and he felt the pain of those who suffered in the accident. He said the government will do everything to help them and strictly punish those found responsible.
Modi on Saturday was supposed to inaugurate a high-speed train connecting Goa and Mumbai equipped with a collision avoidance system. The event was canceled after the accident on Friday. Derailed trains are not in that system.
Amitabh Sharma, spokesperson of the Railroad Ministry, said that the rescue work is nearing completion. The railway authorities will start removing the debris to repair the track and resume train operations, he said.
DB Shinde, a district administrator, said that only five to six bodies remained trapped under a wrecked coach and it was difficult to recover.
“We have deployed a heavy crane. Once we get them, the rescue work will be over,” said Shinde.
About 200 of the seriously injured people have been shifted to special hospitals in other cities of Odisha, said PK Jena, the state’s top administrative officer. Another 200 were discharged after receiving medical care and some were treated at local hospitals, he added. Many people also showed up to donate blood.
“The challenge now is to identify the bodies. Wherever the relatives can provide evidence, the bodies will be handed over after the autopsy. If not identified, we may have to do a DNA test and other protocols,” he said. he.
Ten to 12 coaches of a train derailed, and debris from some of the damaged coaches fell on the nearby track, according to Sharma. The debris hit another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, causing up to three coaches of the second train to derail as well, he added.
A third freight train was also involved, the Press Trust of India reported, but there was no immediate confirmation of that from railway authorities. PTI said some of the derailed passenger coaches hit cars from the freight train.
The rescue operation slowed down because two train cars were damaged due to the impact of the accident, said Jena.
Officials said 1,200 rescuers worked with 115 ambulances, 50 buses and 45 mobile health units throughout the night. Saturday has been declared a day of mourning in Odisha.
Villagers said they rushed to the area to evacuate the people after hearing the loud noise made by the train coaches that went off the tracks.
“The local people really came out to help us. They not only helped to pull the people, but took our luggage and made us fetch water,” PTI quoted Rupam Banerjee, a survivor, as saying.
Passenger Vandana Kaleda said people fell on each other as her coach swayed violently and veered off the tracks.
“When I came out of the toilet, the train suddenly tilted. I lost my balance. … Everything went topsy turvy. People started falling for each other and I was shocked and didn’t understand what was happening. My mind stopped working,” he said.
Another survivor who did not give his name said he was sleeping when the impact woke him up. He said he saw other passengers with broken arms and disfigured faces.
The collision involved two trains, the Coromandel Express traveling from Howrah in West Bengal state to Chennai in Tamil Nadu state and the Howrah Superfast Express traveling from Bengaluru in Karnataka to Howrah, officials said. It was not immediately clear who derailed first.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s railway minister, said a high-level review would be carried out. The political opposition criticized the government and called for Vaishnaw to resign.
In August 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in one of India’s worst train accidents.
In 2016, a passenger train derailed on the tracks between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people.
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 over 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.
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Sharma and Pathi report from New Delhi. Associated Press reporter Chonchui Ngashangva in New Delhi contributed to this report.