Search and rescue operations for victims ended Saturday in India the day after the collision between three trains that left at least 288 dead and 900 injured, one of the worst rail disasters in the country’s history.
After the accident, “people were screaming, calling for help,” Arjun Das, a survivor, told an Indian television channel. The passengers were thrown from their berths, “there were wounded lying everywhere inside the wagons and along the tracks”, he added, stressing that he wanted to “forget the scenes” seen.
Journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP) saw overturned wagons, and rescuers working tirelessly to extract survivors. Many bodies covered in white shrouds lay next to the tracks at the scene of the tragedy, which occurred on Friday evening near Balasore, about 200 kilometers from Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state of Odisha, in eastern India. .
Confusion reigns over the precise sequence of events, but media outlets quoting railway officials said a signaling error was the cause of the tragedy.
It has, they say, rerouted the Coromandal Express, linking Kolkata to Chennai, which crashed into a stationary freight train. This accident in turn led to the derailment of an express train which provided a link between Bengaluru and Kolkata.
Hiranmay Rath, a student whose home is near the train tracks, rushed to help. Within hours, he says he saw more “death and distress” than he could imagine. “Imagine looking at — or extracting — someone’s crushed body, severed arm or leg.”
mutilated bodies
Present in the last carriage of the second train, Anubhav Das said he heard “shrill and horrible sounds coming from afar”. “I saw mutilated bodies and a man with a severed arm desperately helped by his injured son,” the 27-year-old told AFP.
Rescue operations ended on Saturday evening, after the disemboweled carcasses were searched for survivors. “All the bodies and injured passengers have been evacuated from the accident site,” a manager of the emergency coordination room in Balasore, near the scene of the tragedy, told AFP.
According to Odisha State Fire Service Chief Sudhanshu Sarangi, the death toll of 288 is expected to rise further, and could reach 380 dead.
“No one responsible” for the accident will be spared, said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the scene of the disaster on Saturday and met the injured in hospital.
“I pray that we get out of this sad moment as soon as possible,” he told public broadcaster Doordarshan.
All hospitals between the crash site and the state capital, Bhubaneswar, about 200 kilometers away, are receiving victims, authorities said. Some 200 ambulances, and even buses, were mobilized to transport them.
The army has also been mobilized to help, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
Investments
Pope Francis, “deeply saddened”, sent his condolences and prayers on Saturday after the accident. “My thoughts are with the families of the victims,” wrote French President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter.
The United States said it was “very saddened” by the tragedy, wrote on Twitter Jake Sullivan, adviser to Joe Biden. UN Secretary General António Guterres also expressed his “sincere condolences”.
India has experienced a number of rail disasters in the past, but safety had improved significantly in recent years thanks to massive new investments and technological upgrades.
The deadliest rail accident in the country’s history to date remains that of June 6, 1981 when, in the state of Bihar (east), seven wagons of a train crossing a bridge fell into the river. Bagmati, causing between 800 and 1000 deaths.
Since the beginning of the century, there have been 13 rail accidents there, including at least three caused by attacks, which each killed more than 50 people.