Footage broadcast by local stations showed smashed cabins, bloodstains on twisted metal parts, and dozens of passengers lying on the sides of the track near Balasore, about 200 km from the regional capital, Bhubaneswar.
Sarangi told AFP that the death toll “is rising due to the large number of serious injuries and head injuries.”
“About 850 injured people have been taken to hospitals,” local official in Odisha state Pradeep Gina told AFP, stressing that relief work is continuing.
“The top priority now is to rescue (the passengers) and provide health support to the injured,” he added.
Amitabh Sharma, director of Indian Railways, told AFP that the accident occurred between two trains and a freight train that was parked at the site where the collision occurred.
Relief teams are working to pull injured people from the wreckage, amid fears of a high death toll.
“It is very difficult to estimate the numbers of casualties on the ground or clarify the number of wounded,” Sharma said, expressing his belief that several passengers were stuck under the vehicles.
“Doctors and medical teams have been dispatched to the scene,” a medical official in Balasore told AFP.
For his part, Nag said in a statement to a local news station that he was sleeping when the accident occurred, and he woke up to find himself stuck under about ten passengers, so that he could later find a way to get out of the cabin, and he was injured in his neck and arm.
Local media reports showed scenes of a train carriage overturned on one side of the track with what appeared to be survivors on top, and residents trying to recover victims.
SK Panda, a spokesman at Gina’s office, described the incident as “significant”.
“We expect the rescue operations to continue until at least tomorrow morning. On our part, we have prepared all the large hospitals, both government and private, to meet the needs of the wounded,” he said.
The spokesman added that “75 ambulances were sent to the site and a number of buses were deployed” to transport the wounded and survivors.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his “sadness over the train accident”.
In a tweet, he indicated his “solidarity with the bereaved families,” wishing the wounded a “speedy recovery.”
Modi announced that he had contacted Railways Minister Ashwini Vishnu and briefed him on the situation.
Vishnu confirmed that he will go to the scene of the accident. “Rescue teams from Bhubaneswar, Calcutta, National Disaster Response Force, State Government teams and Air Force have been mobilized,” he said via Twitter, stressing, “We will need everyone in rescue operations.”
India often witnesses train accidents, despite the enhancement of railway safety conditions in recent years, thanks to huge investments and modernization of the technologies used.
On Sunday, June 3, Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vishnu announced the determination of the cause of the train accident, which is the worst in decades, and those responsible for it, without further details.
“We have established the cause of the accident and the persons responsible,” the railways minister told the News Agency of India, but made clear that it was “inappropriate” to give details before the final report of the investigation.
Electronic science – Agency “AFP”