India halts night trains following fatal crash
Source: Agencies |
May 30, 2010, Sunday
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RAILWAY authorities canceled all night trains in an eastern Indian state yesterday after a passenger express train derailed and was hit by a cargo train, killing at least 115 people and injuring hundreds. The government accused rebels of sabotaging the tracks.
Railway workers and paramilitary soldiers used cranes to lift and pry apart train cars to pull out more bodies from the Jnaneswari Express, which was heading from Calcutta to suburban Mumbai when it derailed early Friday.
"So far we have pulled out 115 bodies," said Srikumar Mukherjee, state minister for civil defense, who is overseeing rescue operations at the crash site near the small town of Sardiha, about 150 kilometers west of Calcutta in West Bengal state.
Rescue workers had not yet cut open a badly smashed train car where they expected to find still more bodies, said Surojit Kar Purkayastha, a senior police officer.
The work of removing the debris and pulling out the bodies was hampered by swarms of flies and the stench of corpses quickly decomposing in the humid heat, officials said.
Railway authorities said they would not run any trains at night in West Bengal for at least the next four days, when the rebels, known as Naxalites, have called a general strike.
Railway workers and paramilitary soldiers used cranes to lift and pry apart train cars to pull out more bodies from the Jnaneswari Express, which was heading from Calcutta to suburban Mumbai when it derailed early Friday.
"So far we have pulled out 115 bodies," said Srikumar Mukherjee, state minister for civil defense, who is overseeing rescue operations at the crash site near the small town of Sardiha, about 150 kilometers west of Calcutta in West Bengal state.
Rescue workers had not yet cut open a badly smashed train car where they expected to find still more bodies, said Surojit Kar Purkayastha, a senior police officer.
The work of removing the debris and pulling out the bodies was hampered by swarms of flies and the stench of corpses quickly decomposing in the humid heat, officials said.
Railway authorities said they would not run any trains at night in West Bengal for at least the next four days, when the rebels, known as Naxalites, have called a general strike.
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