59 dead in India train crash
Monday, 19 July 2010
Written by Islamstory
Aljazeera.net: At least 59 people have been killed and more than 130 injured in a train collision in eastern India, according to hospital officials.
The crash happened at about 2am (20:30GMT) on Monday when an express train slammed into a stationary train at Sainthia, about 200km north of Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal.
Several local television channels have put the death toll between 50 and 100.
A police officer for the state-owned Indian Railways said bodies were taken to a local hospital and more appeared to be trapped in the train.
Mangled wreckage
Rescue workers could be seen trying to cut their way into the mangled wreckage and television footage showed that the main section of one train carriage had been flung over an overhanging railway bridge.
The accident occurred when the Uttar Banga Express rammed into the stationary Vananchal Express, Saumitra Mohan, the area's district magistrate, said.
"Such was the impact of the crash that one coach was flung onto an over-bridge," Madan Lal, a railway ticket collector who reached the spot immediately after the accident, said.
"I could hear people crying and shouting in the dark," he told NDTV news channel.
"I was fast asleep on the top berth when there was this huge crash like an explosion," one passenger told the Times Now news channel.
"I was flung from the berth, and then people started shouting and there was complete panic," he said.
Mamata Banerjee, the railways minister, who is from West Bengal, told reporters before leaving for the accident site that "we have doubts in our minds about who is behind this accident".
"We are still finding out the details and we will take all necessary steps and action and find out who is behind this calamity," Banerjee said.
Compensation of 500,000 rupees ($10,500) was offered to the families of the dead and 100,000 rupees to the injured.
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