Death toll from India's worst train accident in six years hit 150 after rescuers lifted the last of metal wreckage checking for bodies underneath. At least 200 workers were busy clearing the tracks and checking for damage to the rail line hoping to resume traffic through one of the country's busiest railway junctions near Kanpur, said railway official Amit Kumar.
The Indore-Patna Express which was in the middle of its 27-hour journey between Indore and Patna, slid off the tracks at 3:10 am on Sunday, with an impact so strong, one of its coaches landed atop another and flung passengers off their beds. Over 226 people were injured in the tragedy including 14 coaches of the train, near Pukhrayan station, 60 km from Kanpur. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu visited hospitals where the injured were treated. "High-level orders are being given to probe the accident," he said, adding that the Railway Ministry has collaborated with the Uttar Pradesh government to provide all necessary help. Also at the accident site was Minister of State for Railways, Manoj Sinha. He promptly ordered officials to increase the pace of relief operations and better treatment to the injured. "Strict action will be taken against those responsible for the disaster," he said.
There was a joint effort of rescue workers, soldiers, and members of the central disaster management force, as they used cutting torches to pry open cars and, cranes to lift coaches from the tracks. The last of the cars were lifted by Monday. While the reason for the crash is under investigation, some railway officials said they believe faulty tracks to be the culprit. "We haven't seen an incident like this in Indian railways for a long time. There must be a fault in the track as 14 bogeys have derailed, and this happened despite regular checking of the tracks," said minister of state in the railway ministry Rajen Gohain.
As hospitals in the vicinity and nearby towns began to fill up to their capacity, several non-government organisation, guest houses, and dharamshalas in the area took in the injured, said director-general of health Sunil Kumar Srivastava. Doctors visited them and shifted the seriously injured to the Kanpur medical college and other government facilities. Srivastava also said that a cold storage owner had offered to store unidentified bodies for three days. "We will preserve the DNA sample of the dead passengers whose relatives do not turn up." he added.
Several doctors, with private practice, lent a hand to doctors in government hospitals. Some even opened the doors of their nursing homes and arranged blood donors for those in need of surgery, a health official said. While accidents are relatively common on India’s sprawling rail network, the derailment of the Patna-Indore Express Train is among India’s deadliest in at least six years.
