Geo World

India train death toll rises to 53

LUCKNOW: The death toll from a train accident in northern India has risen to 53, a senior police official said Monday, with a Swedish man reportedly among the dead. "The rescue operations are now over. Fifty-three bodies have been retrieved and 249 are injured, many of whom are still in the local hospitals," Brij Lal, a senior police official from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said. The Press Trust of India news agency said a Swedish man was among the dead. Police official Ram Bharose told PTI that another Swede was reported to be missing after the accident, which occurred when a packed train travelling at full speed derailed Sunday, killing 53 passengers as carriages were forced on top of each other. Rescue teams and local residents worked frantically overnight, trying to cut through the twisted metal carriages to free people trapped inside. The Kalka Mail was heading from Howrah, the main station for the eastern city of Kolkata, across India to the capital New Delhi when it sped off the tracks. Officials said the death toll could rise and that an investigation had been launched. Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal told PTI Monday that preliminary investigations had shown that the signals and the tracks were functioning normally prior to the accident. Late Sunday, an explosion hit another train in the northeastern state of Assam, but police were unable to say whether the blast was caused by separatist militants active in the area. No fatalities were reported in that incident but 20 of the 100 injured were described by police as being in a serious condition. The Guwahati-Puri Express was nearing Ghograpara, about 70 kilometres (44 miles) from Assam's main city of Guwahati, when the blast struck. (AFP)