NEW DELHI (SW): At least 36 people were killed and 50 injured on Saturday night when nine coaches of a passenger train derailed in eastern India, in the latest disaster to hit the vast and accident-prone state railways, police said.
The Hirakhand express train from Jagdalpur to Bhubaneswar derailed at around 11:20 pm near Kuneri station, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, around 30 km outside the town of Rayagada.
“The death toll has gone up to 32, unfortunately. But it should settle at that. It shouldn’t rise any further,” J. P. Mishra, a spokesperson for East Coast Railways, told AFP. He said some 50 injured have been moved to nearby hospitals.
National railway spokesperson Anil Saxena said government officials and emergency workers worked through the night to try to find survivors. Saxena said investigators were considering possible sabotage of the tracks by Maoist rebels, who were active in the area. “It is being looked into, it is one of the many angles we are looking into,” he told AFP.
Chief ministers of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh expressed their grief over the latest tragedy, while Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said he was rushing to the spot. Prabhu announced compensation of 200,000 rupees ($2,936) for the relatives of the dead and 50,000 for those injured.
India’s railway network is still the main form of long-distance travel in the vast country, but it is poorly funded and deadly accidents occur relatively frequently
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