Pakistan train collision claims 21
Print Edition
AT least 21 people died and dozens more were injured after two trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi during morning rush hour yesterday, officials said.
Witnesses described watching in horror as one train sped into the city’s Quaidabad Railway Station and rammed into the second, which was stationary, with the roar of the crash swiftly followed by the screams of people trapped inside.
Rescuers armed with metal-cutting equipment and heavy cranes managed to pull all the passengers from the twisted wreckage, officials said.
Many were rushed to Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital, where a reporter described horrifying scenes as the injured lay screaming and crying while medics rushed to help.
“I am dying, I am dying, please, please, I am dying,” cried Abdul Ghaffar, 55, as doctors tried to move his legs and hands. He appeared to have multiple injuries, while his children and wife were also wounded and lay on beds nearby.
Other victims appeared too stunned to talk. Many had head and foot injuries, and at least one man had his leg amputated below the knee.
Dr Kaleem Shaikh, the senior medical officer at Jinnah Hospital, put the death toll at 21 with 65 wounded.
Among the dead, he said, were a couple and their twin daughters.
Casualties were still being counted but there could have been a total of up to 1,000 passengers on board the trains when the accident occurred, said Nasir Nazeer, an administrative official in Karachi.
Pakistan’s railways minister claimed the driver had been asleep, but local officials said only that an inquiry has been opened into the cause of the accident.
The accident occurred when the incoming Zakria Express from the central city of Multan rammed into the Fareed Express from Lahore, as it waited at Quaidabad Station, also known as Jumma Goth, in Karachi’s Landi neighborhood.
Ajab Gul said he was on his way to his factory job when he witnessed the accident.
“Suddenly another train came speeding in and smashed into the parked train,” he said. “There were clouds of dust and smog. After that we heard screams. People inside the collided trains were screaming and crying.”
Onlookers rushed to their aid, he said, adding that he had helped pull 17 people from the wreckage.
Train services from Karachi to the rest of the country have been suspended.
Rail accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of kilometers of track and trains from former colonial power Britain. The railways have seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.
Yesterday’s crash was the second this year involving the Fareed Express. In February the northbound train hit a van at a crossing in southern Pakistan, killing eight people from the same family.
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