| At least 65 people were killed and over 200 others injured when a freight train hit an express train after the latter derailed following a sabotage of the railway tracks by suspected extreme left-wing Naxal rebels in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal early Friday morning, said police.
The incident happened at 01:30 a.m. when the Mumbai-bound Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express was running between the Khemasoli and Sardiya stations near Jhargram area in the state.
The two trains collided after the blast hit the express train and flung five of its 13 derailed coaches into the path of the speeding goods train coming from the opposite direction.
West Bengal Police chief Bhupinder Singh told the media in state capital Kolkata that the Naxalites were behind the incident.
"We suspect the hand of Naxalites as a section of the rail track was found missing and fishplates were loosened," he said, adding that posters of Naxalite organizations have been found at the site.
Local TV channels showed footage of Indian Air Force choppers ferrying the injured from the accident site to the hospitals and the five mangled compartments of the express train, even as rescue workers trying to free survivors from the wreckage and bringing out the bodies of the deceased.
Indian Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has rushed to the spot and is overseeing the rescue operations, along with several senior railway and police officials.
"The blast which caused the express train to derail took place on the first day of the a four day 'Black week' called by the Naxalites. A patrol engine passed through the area half an hour earlier, but the timing of the blast proved disastrous with a portion of the line being blown away," she told the media.
Train services have been severely disrupted and the Indian Railways said that it might take at least one day to normalize the services.
"It would take about 24 hours to restore services. Once trapped persons are taken out, restoration work will be quickly done," a member of the Railway Board, Vivek Sahai, said, adding that the railways would give a compensation of 500,000 rupees (2,500 U.S. dollars) for the next of kin of each of the dead and 100,000 rupees (2,000 U.S. dollars) for the injured.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed his grief over the death of Gyaneswari Express passengers and announced a compensation of 200,000 rupees (4,000 U.S. dollars) to the kin of the deceased and 50,000 rupees (1,000 U.S. dollars) for each of those seriously injured. |
