A passenger train derailed in India’s eastern state of Odisha, trapping many people in the coaches and injuring more than 170 people, according to media reports.
At least 30 people died after a passenger train derailed and collided with a freight car in Odisha’s Balasore district on Friday, according to the British news agency Reuters.
According to reports, the Kolkata-to-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed after the collision and fell on the opposite track.
Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena told Reuters: ‘Around 50 ambulances have reported but the casualties appear to be high. A large (number of) buses are being run to take the injured to the hospital.’
Indian media is also reporting several deaths in the train accident.
According to the American news agency Associated Press (AP), DB Shinde, chief administrative officer of Balasore district in Odisha state, said that rescue workers are trying to evacuate another 200 people who are trapped in the derailed coaches.
He said that the reasons for the derailment are being investigated.
Railway ministry spokesman Amitabh Sharma said some broken pieces of the derailed train fell on the nearby track and collided with another passenger train coming from the opposite direction. Details were not immediately known.
The derailed Coromandel Express was traveling from Howrah in the state of West Bengal to Chennai, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Pictures from India’s private news television showed rescue teams trying to pull passengers out of the dilapidated coaches. New Delhi television reports said that 179 people have been taken to hospitals.
According to AP, despite the government’s efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred railway accidents occur every year in India. In August 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi and 358 people were killed in the worst train accident in the country’s history.
Most train accidents are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people board India’s 14,000 trains every day, which travel over 64,000 km of track.
At least 30 people were killed and 179 hospitalized after a passenger train derailed and collided with a freight train in Odisha’s Balasore district on Friday, media reports and officials said.