India
‘I am haunted by it’: Survivors of deadly train crash in India recount trauma
Gura Pallay was watching another train pass by the one he was sitting in when he heard sudden, loud screeching. Before he could make sense of what was happening, he was thrown out of the train.
Pallay, 24, landed next to the tracks along with metal wreckage of the train he’d been riding in, and instantly lost consciousness. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the twisted remains of three trains on the tracks.
His train had derailed after colliding with a stopped freight train. Another passenger train, the one he had seen pass by moments earlier, had hit the derailed carriages.
“I saw it with my own eyes, but I still can’t describe what I saw. I am haunted by it,” he said Sunday at a hospital, where he lay on a stretcher with a broken leg and dark wounds on his face and arms.
Pallay is a laborer, like most of the people onboard the two passenger trains that crashed Friday in the eastern Odisha state, killing 275 people and injuring hundreds. He was traveling to Chennai city in southern India to take up a job in a paper mill factory when the Coromandel Express crashed with a goods freight train, knocking it off track, and was then hit by a second train coming from the opposite direction on a parallel track.
Read: Error in signaling system led to train crash that killed 275 people in India, official says
“I never imagined something like this could happen, but I guess it was our fate,” he said.
Investigators said Sunday that a signaling failure might have caused the three-train crash, one of the worst rail disasters in the country’s history. Authorities recommended that India’s Central Bureau of Investigations, which probes major criminal cases, open an investigation into the crash.
“We can’t bring back those we have lost, but the government is with the families in their grief. Whosoever is found guilty will be punished severely,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday while visiting the site of the accident.
The crash occurred as Modi’s government is focusing on the modernization of India’s British colonial-era railroad network.
Several survivors of the crash said they were still struggling to comprehend the disaster.
“Everything happened so quickly,” said Subhashish Patra, a student who was traveling with his family from Balasore to the state capital, Bhubaneswar, on the Coromandel Express. He was planning to take his mother to a hospital in Bhubaneswar to seek treatment for a hand injury, and then to travel to Puri, home to one of Odisha’s most important temples.
Read: India’s deadly train crash renews questions over safety as government pushes railway upgrade
The first thing Patra could make sense of after the crash was the sound of children crying. People were screaming for help in the dark, and around him lay corpses.
“There were dead bodies all around me,” he said.
Patra said the rail carriage he was in landed with the door facing upwards. He climbed onto a pile of wreckage inside the train and managed pull himself out.
At the hospital on Sunday, Patra’s head was bandaged in gauze as he waited for an MRI scan. His head was throbbing with pain, he said, but he was grateful that he and his entire family had survived.
Others weren’t so lucky.
Alaudin, who goes by one name, travelled almost 200 kilometers (124.3 miles) Saturday from West Bengal state to the crash site, to look for his brother, who was onboard one of the trains.
He learned about the crash from television. When he tried to call his brother’s mobile phone to check on him, no one answered.
Worried, he and his sister-in-law rushed to the site of the crash afterwards and spent all of Saturday looking for him in various hospitals, hoping he would be alive. But his brother’s whereabouts remained unknown as the death toll continued to rise.
Distraught, they finally made their way to the mortuary, where Alaudin’s brother body was wrapped in a black plastic bag and placed on top of blocks of melting ice.
“I lost my brother, she lost her husband,” Alaudin said, pointing to his sister-in-law. “And his two boys have lost a father.”
His brother was 36 years old, Alaudin said.
Indian Army Chief arrives in Dhaka on 2-day visit
General Manoj Pande, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Indian Army, is visiting Bangladesh from June 5-6 at the invitation of his counterpart, General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed, SBP (BAR), Chief of Army Staff (CAS), Bangladesh Army to review the Passing Out Parade at Bangladesh Military Academy, Chattogram.
This visit of COAS, Indian Army to Bangladesh follows the recent visit of General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed to India when he was invited by COAS, Indian Army to similarly review the Passing Out Parade at Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai, said a media release on Monday.
Also Read: Indian Army Chief meets his Bangladesh counterpart
During his visit, COAS, Indian Army will pay tributes to members of the Bangladesh Armed Forces who made the supreme sacrifice during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 by laying a wreath at the altar of Shikha Anirban in Dhaka Cantonment.
He will also hold bilateral discussion with CAS, Bangladesh Army and review the entire ground of defence cooperation between India and Bangladesh.
Also Read: 'To be nasty to people, to be violent are not Indian values': Rahul Gandhi tells Indian expats in US
These high-level exchanges provide an opportunity to both sides to renew the close bonds of friendship and fraternal ties that exist between the Armed Forces of India and Bangladesh, said the release.
Bangladeshi shot dead by India's BSF along Lalmonirhat border
A Bangladeshi man was shot dead by members of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) along Kalirhat border in Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat district early Monday.
The deceased was identified as Yusuf Ali, 27, son of Shah Jamal of Meser Danga village of Jagatab union of the upazila.
Also Read: Stone quarry worker allegedly shot by BSF dies
Quoting locals, Omar Faruk, officer-in-charge of Patrgram police station, said the BSF troops opened fire on a group of Bangladeshis while they were trying to bring Indian cattle through the main pillar number 857 of the border area, leaving Yusuf dead on the spot.
On information, police were sent to the house of the victim, added the OC.
Also Read: 1 Bangladeshi shot dead, another wounded by BSF along Lalmonirhat border
Lieutenant Colonel Sheikh Mohammad Musahid Masum, commander at the BGB-61, confirmed the incident saying that they have already contacted the BOP camp over the incident.
Besides, a flag meeting between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Indian Security Forces (BSF) will be held in this regard, he added.
Error in signaling system led to train crash that killed 275 people in India, official says
The derailment in eastern India that killed 275 people and injured hundreds was caused by an error in the electronic signaling system that led a train to wrongly change tracks and crash into a freight train, officials said Sunday.
Authorities worked to clear the mangled wreckage of the two passenger trains that derailed Friday night in Balasore district in Odisha state in one of the country’s deadliest rail disasters in decades.
An Odisha government statement revised the death toll to 275 after a top state officer put the number at over 300 on Sunday morning. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Jaya Verma Sinha, a senior railway official, said the preliminary investigations revealed that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track line, but the signal later changed, and the train instead entered an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a freight loaded with iron ore.
Read: India’s deadly train crash renews questions over safety as government pushes railway upgrade
The collision flipped Coromandel Express’s coaches onto another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side also to derail, she said.
The passenger trains, carrying 2,296 people, were not overspeeding, she said. Trains that carry goods are often parked on an adjacent loop line so the main line is clear for a passing train.
Verma said the root cause of the crash was related to an error in the electronic signaling system. She said a detailed investigation will reveal whether the error was human or technical.
The electronic interlocking system is a safety mechanism designed to prevent conflicting movements between trains. It also monitors the status of signals that tell drivers how close they are to a next train, how fast they can go and the presence of stationary trains on the track.
Read more: No more survivors found after India train crash kills over 280, injures 900; Modi heads to site
“The system is 99.9% error free. But 0.1% chances are always there for an error,” Verma said. To a question whether the crash could be a case of sabotage, she said “nothing is ruled out.”
On Sunday, a few shattered carriages, mangled and overturned, were the only remnants of the tragedy. Railway workers toiled under the sun’s glare to lay down blocks of cement to fix the broken tracks. A crew with excavators was removing mud and the debris to clear the crash site.
At one of the hospitals nearly 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the site, survivors spoke of the horror of the moment of the crash.
Pantry worker Inder Mahato could not remember the exact sequence of events, but said he heard a loud bang when the Coromandel Express crashed into the freight. The impact caused Mahato, who was in the bathroom, to briefly lose consciousness.
Read: India train crash: some Bangladeshis suffered minor injuries, says deputy high commission
Moments later when he opened his eyes, he saw through the door that was forced open people writhing in pain, many of them already dead. Others were frantically trying to get out from the twisted wreckage of his rail car.
For hours, Mahato, 37, remained stuck in the train’s bathroom, before rescuers scaled up the wreckage and pulled him out.
“God saved me,” he said, lying on the hospital bed while recuperating from a hairline fracture in his sternum. “I am very lucky I am alive.”
Mahato’s friends weren’t so lucky. Four of them died in the crash, he said.
Meanwhile, many desperate relatives were struggling to identify the bodies of their loved ones because of the gruesomeness of the injuries. Few others were searching hospitals to check whether their relatives were alive.
Read: Indian railways minister says signaling system error led to crash that killed over 300 people
In the same hospital where Mahato was recovering from his injuries, Bulti Khatun roamed outside the premises in a dazed state, holding an identity card of her husband who was onboard the Coromandel Express and traveling to southern Chennai city.
Khatun said she visited the morgue and other hospitals to look for him, but was unable to find him.
“I am so helpless,” she said, sobbing.
Fifteen bodies were recovered on Saturday evening and efforts continued overnight with heavy cranes being used to remove an engine that settled on top of a rail car. No bodies were found in the engine and the work was completed on Sunday morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, director-general of fire and emergency services in Odisha.
Read more: India train accident: 2 Bangladeshis receiving treatment in hospital, says deputy high commissioner
The crash occurred at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focusing on the modernization of the British colonial-era railroad network in India, which has become the world’s most populous country with 1.42 billion people. Despite government efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India’s railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.
Modi visited the crash site on Saturday and talked to rescue officials. He also visited a hospital to inquire about the injured, and spoke to some of them.
Modi told reporters he felt the pain of the crash victims. He said the government would do its utmost to help them and strictly punish anyone found responsible.
In 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in one of the worst rail accidents in India. In 2016, a passenger train slid off the tracks between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people.
Most such accidents in India are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
Read more: Indian officials end rescue work for 2 wrecked passenger trains that killed over 300 people
About 22 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.
India’s deadly train crash renews questions over safety as government pushes railway upgrade
India's prime minister had been scheduled to inaugurate an electrical semi-high-speed train equipped with a safety feature — another step in the modernization of an antiquated railway that is the lifeline of the world's most populous nation.
Instead on Saturday, Narendra Modi traveled to eastern Odisha state to deal with one of the country's worst train disasters that left over 280 dead and hundreds injured. The massive derailment on Friday night involving two passenger trains is a stark reminder of safety issues that continue to challenge the vast railway system that transports nearly 22 million passengers each day.
India, a country of 1.42 billion people, has one of the world's most extensive and complicated railways built during the British colonial era: more than 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) of tracks, 14,000 passenger trains and 8,000 stations. Spread across the country from the Himalayas in the north to the beaches in the south, it is also a system that is weakened by decades of mismanagement and neglect. Despite efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents happen every year.
From 2017 to 2021, there were more than 100,000 train-related deaths in India, according to a 2022 report published by the National Crime Records Bureau. That figure includes cases in which passengers fell from the trains, collisions, and people being mowed by speeding trains on the tracks.
Official data also suggests derailments are the most common form of rail accidents in India, but have been on a decline in recent years.
According to India's Comptroller and Auditor General, Indian Railways recorded 2,017 accidents from 2017 to 2021. Derailments accounted for 69% of the accidents, resulting in 293 deaths.
The report found multiple factors including track defects, maintenance issues, outdated signaling equipment, and human errors as main causes of the derailments. It also said lack of money or non-utilization of available funds for track restorations led to 26% of the accidents.
Even though the railway safety in India has improved compared to earlier years when serious crashes and accidents near unmanned crossings were more frequent, scores have still died and hundreds have been injured.
In 2016, a passenger train slid off the tracks between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people. A year later, a derailment in southern India killed at least 36 passengers.
The Modi government, in power for nine years, has invested tens of billions of dollars in the railways. The money has been spent on renovating or replacing the old tracks laid by the British in the 19th century, introducing new trains and removing thousands of unmanned railway crossings.
The train Modi was supposed to inaugurate Saturday was India's 19th Vande Bharat Express, connecting the western city of Mumbai and the southern state of Goa.
The modern trains are designed to help reduce the risk of crashes and derailments. They will be paired with a countrywide automatic train collision protection system, a technology that will make travel safe, according to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
But the system was not yet installed on the track where Friday's crash took place. It wasn't clear what caused the trains to derail and an investigation has started.
Experts suggest that the country's railway system needs to prioritize safe tracks and collision protection.
"India has achieved some success in making train journeys safer over the years, but a lot more needs to be done. The entire system needs a realignment and distributed development. We can't just focus on modern trains and have tracks that aren't safe," said Swapnil Garg, a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers.
Garg said the crash should "shake up the whole railway system" and prompt authorities to look at the "lax safety culture."
"I don't expect authorities to turn the key and fix things quickly. The Indian railway system is huge and it will take time to make it more safer. But there needs to be a will," he said.
Indian railways minister says signaling system error led to crash that killed over 300 people
The train derailment in eastern India that killed more than 300 people and injured hundreds more was caused by an error in the electronic signaling system that led a train to wrongly change tracks, India's railways minister said Sunday.
''Who has done it and what is the reason will come out of an investigation," Ashwini Vaishnaw said in an interview with New Delhi Television network.
The explanation came as authorities worked to clear the mangled wreckage of the two passenger trains that derailed Friday night in Balasore district of eastern Odisha state, in one of the country's deadliest rail accidents in decades.
Also Read: Indian officials end rescue work for 2 wrecked passenger trains that killed over 300 people
Preliminary investigations revealed that a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to enter the main track line, but the signal was later taken off, and the train instead entered an adjacent loop line where it rammed into a goods train. The collision flipped Coromandel Express's coaches onto another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side to derail, triggering a three-train collision.
The passenger trains were carrying 2,296 people total.
Trains that carry goods are often parked on an adjacent loop line on the side so the main line is clear for a passing train.
Also Read: India train accident: 2 Bangladeshis receiving treatment in hospital, says deputy high commissioner
Fifteen bodies were recovered on Saturday evening and efforts continued overnight as heavy cranes were used to remove an engine that had settled on top of a rail car. No bodies were found in the engine and the work was completed on Sunday morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, director-general of fire and emergency services in Odisha.
The accident occurred at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focusing on the modernization of the British colonial-era railroad network in India, which has become the world's most populous country with 1.42 billion people. Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India's railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.
Chaotic scenes erupted on Friday night as rescuers climbed atop the wrecked trains to break open doors and windows using cutting torches to try to save people who were trapped inside the rail cars.
Also Read: No more survivors found after India train crash kills over 280, injures 900; Modi heads to site
Modi visited the crash site on Saturday to examine the relief effort and talk to rescue officials. He also visited a hospital where he asked doctors about the treatments being given to the injured, and spoke to some of the patients.
Modi told reporters he felt the pain of those who suffered in the accident. He said the government would do its utmost to help them and strictly punish anyone found responsible.
Ten to 12 coaches of one train derailed, and debris from some of the mangled coaches fell onto a nearby track. The debris was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, causing up to three coaches of the second train to also derail, said Amitabh Sharma, a Railroad Ministry spokesperson.
In 1995, two trains collided near New Delhi, killing 358 people in one of the worst train accidents in India. In 2016, a passenger train slid off the tracks between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people.
Most train accidents in India are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.
Indian officials end rescue work for 2 wrecked passenger trains that killed over 300 people
With rescue work finished, authorities began clearing the mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 300 people and injuring hundreds in one of the country’s deadliest rail accidents in decades, officials said Sunday (June 4, 2023).
Investigators are looking into possible causes behind Friday (June 2, 2023) night’s crash in Balasore district of eastern Odisha state, including whether human error or signal failure played a role.
Fifteen bodies were recovered on Saturday evening and efforts continued overnight as heavy cranes were used to remove an engine that had settled on top of a rail car. No bodies were found in the engine and the work was completed on Sunday morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, director-general of fire and emergency services in Odisha.
Read more: India train accident: 2 Bangladeshis receiving treatment in hospital, says deputy high commissioner
India train accident: 2 Bangladeshis receiving treatment in hospital, says deputy high commissioner
Two Bangladeshis were hospitalized with injuries following Friday’s (June 2, 2023) train crash in India, Andalib Elias, deputy high commissioner at the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, said.
“We do not have any information about any deceased Bangladeshis; what we know so far is two Bangladeshi injured passengers are currently undergoing treatment in two hospitals in Odisha,” he said in a video message.
Also read: India train crash kills over 280, injures 900 in country's deadliest rail accident in decades
“Also families of four train passengers contacted us from Bangladesh and said they (the four Bangladeshis) are still missing. We are trying to trace them and already a team from the Kolkata deputy high commission went to the accident site this morning. Hopefully after reaching there they will coordinate with the injured Bangladeshis there,” he added.
The mission provided an emergency Whatsapp number: +919038353533 for further assistance.
Aslo read: Train accident in Odisha: Hotline opened for query about Bangladeshis
Rescuers found no more survivors in the overturned and mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds in one of the country’s deadliest rail crashes in decades, AP reported.
Also read: India train crash: some Bangladeshis suffered minor injuries, says deputy high commission
India train crash: some Bangladeshis suffered minor injuries, says deputy high commission
The Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata has received reports of minor injuries suffered by a few Bangladeshi passengers, but the number is not known yet, a diplomat has told UNB.
A team of the High Commission is on the way to the accident site to learn more details, he said.
Also read: India train crash kills over 280, injures 900 in country's deadliest rail accident in decades
Two passenger trains derailed in India last night (June 2, 2023), killing more than 280 people. Hundreds of others were trapped inside more than a dozen mangled rail cars in one of the country's deadliest train accidents in decades.
The train accident happened about 220 km southwest of Kolkata. About 900 people were injured in the accident in Balasore district in the state of Odisha, said the state's top administrative official.
Train accident in Odisha: Hotline opened for query about Bangladeshis
A hotline has been opened to provide information or query about Bangladeshis following the horrific train crash in India’s Odisha.Bangladesh Deputy High Commission, Kolkata issued a press release in this regard soon after the accident.It also expressed profound condolences to the families of victims of the tragic Coromandel Express accident, and wished early recovery of the injured.For further query it asked to contact +919038353533 (WhatsApp).
Also read: India train crash kills over 280, injures 900 in country's deadliest rail accident in decades
At least 280 bodies were recovered overnight and into Saturday morning, Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of Odisha's fire department, told The Associated Press.
He said more than 800 injured passengers were taken to various hospitals with many in critical condition.The accident, which happened about 220 kilometers (137 miles) southwest of Kolkata on Friday night, led to a chaotic scene as rescuers climbed atop the wrecked trains to break open doors and windows using cutting torches to free survivors.About 900 people were injured in the accident in Balasore district in the eastern state of Odisha, said P.K. Jena, the state's top administrative official. The cause was under investigation.Read more: India train crash: some Bangladeshis suffered minor injuries, says deputy high commission