India derailed train toll climbs to 146
Print Edition
RESCUERS yesterday ended their search for survivors among the twisted remains of a derailed train as the death toll from one of India’s worst rail disasters rose to 146.
Parts of the train were mangled beyond recognition when the Indore-Patna Express derailed, sending carriages crashing into each other in the early hours of Sunday in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Rescuers worked through the night, picking through the wreckage with sniffer dogs to try to find more survivors.
But the search was called off yesterday afternoon as the last of the carriages was removed from the tracks.
“We recovered eight bodies today ... there is no hope for more survivors,” said Anil Shekhawat, spokesman for the National Disaster Response Force.
A further 179 people are being treated in hospital, 60 of whom are in a serious condition, Vijay Kumar, a spokesman for Indian railways said. “The rail line has been cleared,” he added.
At least 2,000 people are believed to have been on the train at the time, many traveling without reserved seats or any ticket at all.
Many of the injured were young children who had become separated from relatives.
Doctors were using WhatsApp to try to reunite children with relatives — sharing photos of their unidentified patients with other hospitals in the area via the online messaging app.
“This way, if anyone from his family or acquaintances was at the other hospital looking for him, we were able to unite them swiftly,” said AK Srivastava, a senior doctor at one of the local hospitals, scrolling through pictures of the injured on his phone. Eight-year-old Sejal Yadav was found by her brother Rahul, 18, thanks to the app.
The girl, who remains in intensive care, was traveling with her grandfather and two uncles. All three died.
The disaster occurred at the peak of India’s marriage season, and at least one wedding party was on board the train.
Local media said wedding clothes, jewelry and invitation cards could be seen spilling from abandoned bags.
Abhay Srivastava, 11, was traveling to a wedding with his parents and two sisters. He is the only member of his family who survived.
Whimpering in pain with multiple broken bones and stitches all over his body, Srivastava repeatedly called out for his mother.
“‘Tell her I am calling.’ This is all he has been saying since yesterday,” said his uncle Rajesh Kumar Srivastava. “How can I tell the child that everything that was his is lost,” he added.
A fracture in the track is thought to have caused the train to derail. Railways minister Suresh Prabhu has promised a thorough investigation.
“Forensic enquiry has been ordered to look into all possible angles. Guilty will be given strictest possible punishment,” he said, addressing a rowdy crowd of lawmakers in the lower house of parliament yesterday.
India’s railway network, one of the world’s largest, is still the main form of long-distance travel in the vast country, but it is poorly funded and deadly accidents occur relatively frequently.
A 2012 government report said almost 15,000 people were killed every year on India’s railways and described the loss of life as an annual “massacre.”
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