Rescuers have worked through the night to pull survivors out of a deadly train crash in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state.
At least 120 people are dead after the Indore-Patna Express derailed at 03:00 local time on Sunday (21:30 GMT Saturday), near the city of Kanpur.
The death toll could rise as workers reach the worst-hit carriages.
The cause of the crash is not known, though reports said a track fracture could be to blame.
Train accidents are fairly common in India, where much of the railway equipment is out of date.
Early on Monday the railway ministry published a list of names of injured passengers. Out of the 131 listed, 58 were said to be “grievously injured”. Earlier reports quoted officials as saying more than 150 people were injured.Media captionRescuers are desperately trying to reach people trapped inside
The derailment had the strongest impact on the first two carriages of the train behind the engine, which crashed into each other and overturned. Most of the victims were located in these carriages.
Rescuers have been using metal cutters, torches and cranes to open up the carriages and extricate people.
According to the Indian Express the carriages were outdated and known for piling up in accidents. The report said the government had promised earlier this year to upgrade all trains.
Image captionThe first two carriages sustained the most damage by the derailment
Daljeet Chaudhary, a director general of police, told the Associated Press that he expected the death toll to rise as rescue workers had yet to gain access to one of the worst-damaged carriages.
The train may have also been carrying far more passengers that it was supposed to, reports said.
Although the official number of passengers was about 1,200, the Times of India said as many as another 500 could have been on the train without tickets, citing unnamed railway officials as sources.
Image captionRescuers have been using cranes and cutting equipment to open up the carriages
Image captionMany of the injured were brought to Kanpur
Krishna Keshav, who was travelling on the train, told the BBC: “We woke with a jolt at around 3am. Several coaches were derailed, everybody was in shock. I saw several bodies and injured people.”
Passenger Ruby Gupta, 20, was travelling to Azamagarh to be married on 1 December.
She told the Times of India that most of the people travelling with her had been found but that her father was still missing.
She said: “I cannot find my father and I have been looking everywhere for him. I have a fractured arm and my sisters have also sustained injuries.”
Many anxious relatives gathered at the station in Indore, where the train began its journey, holding pictures of loved ones, the Times said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Anguished beyond words on the loss of lives due to the derailing of the Patna-Indore express. My thoughts are with the bereaved families.
“Prayers with those injured in the tragic train accident.”
Mr Modi also promised compensation to the victims’ relatives and injured passengers, and said he had spoken to Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, who was “personally monitoring the situation closely”.
On his own Twitter account, Mr Prabhu warned that “strictest possible action will be taken against those who could be responsible for accident”.
India’s vast rail network
The world’s third longest by track
22 million
passenger journeys per day
27,581
railway related deaths in 2014
- 115,000km of track; 7,112 stations
- 1.3 million staff in 2014-15
- $25bn revenue in 2014-15
- 5.29 times more likely to die on the road than the railways
Reuters
