NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that anybody found responsible for a tragic rail disaster in eastern India will face “severe punishment.”
The BBC said that the incident on Friday involving two passenger trains and a cargo train in Odisha state resulted in at least 288 fatalities and more than 800 injuries.
Officials report that all passengers trapped or injured were rescued once the rescue attempts were finished. Modi visited the spot and described the occurrence as “painful”.
Modi visited hospitalised victims and stated that his government will do all possible to treat the afflicted.
The reason for the multiple-train crash in Balasore district, dubbed India’s worst rail tragedy of the century, is yet unknown.
Although a thorough investigation has been started, according to a preliminary report, the South Eastern Railway’s head public relations officer, KS Anand, the disaster was caused by a signal failure.
Some 2,000 passengers were thought to have been on board the two passenger trains involved.
How did three trains collide?
The exact sequence of events had been the subject of conflicting accounts.
According to officials, a number of the Coromandel Express’s carriages that were travelling between Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Chennai (formerly Madras) derailed at around 19:00 (13:30 GMT) after colliding with a stopped goods train. Uncertainty still exists as to how the Express came to share the same track as the cargo train.
The freight train was already parked there when the Coromandel Express struck it. “The Coromandel Express was supposed to travel on the main line, but a signal was given for the loop line instead,” Anand added.
The Howrah Superfast Express was also derailed when its carriages “then fell on to the tracks on either side.”
Outside the trauma centre of the SCB hospital in the city of Cuttack, where seriously injured passengers have been taken in, ambulance siren sounds could be heard every 30 minutes.
Nearly 200 passengers have already been brought in from the scene of the train disaster, and the numbers are still growing.
Even though it is the biggest hospital in the state of Odisha, the hospital is still three hours away from the scene of the accident.
The hospital personnel has been lined up and waiting in groups to help patients as they are brought in. This includes junior physicians, nurses, and ward boys. To accommodate the influx of people, the wards have been extended.
Whistles and announcements from hospital staff disrupt the commotion on a regular basis.
Families of the injured are nervously waiting outside and praying for their loved ones’ recovery. But a lot of people are still hunting for their loved ones since they don’t know where they are.
For the benefit of those who are having trouble finding their relatives, a counter has been set up. The lists are lengthy, and it is congested.
