The Coromandel Express was traveling at 130km/h when it went to hell in the Indian state of Odisha on Friday evening. According to early reconstructions, the source of the accident would have been an inexplicable change of course that could go into the annals as the worst rail disaster of the last century. It was 7:00 pm when the train connecting Shalimar to Chennai in Balasore collided with a freight train stopping near Bahanaga station, causing the train to derail. Later, the wagons of the freight train collided with the two cars of the Howrah Superfast Express train traveling in the opposite direction.
Custom Animation #OdishaTrainAccident #CoromandelExpress #Freight train #TV9Telugu pic.twitter.com/USBsP1fQR0
— TV9 Telugu (@TV9Telugu) June 3, 2023
As rescue operations continued among the wreckage of the three convoys, the number of victims and casualties reached catastrophic numbers: In fact, the number of victims would have been over 288, while hospitals are trying to save about a thousand people. they were involved in disaster. A real race against time with local residents rushing to hospitals to donate blood.
Train collision in India: More than 280 dead
Today, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to the area in Balasore, where the disaster took place, and then to Cuttack hospital, where most of the injured have been hospitalized. One of the survivors, Anubha Das, explained to local media that dozens of tortured corpses had disappeared and saw a veritable bloodbath.
Video footage showed rescuers determined to inspect what was left of the cars that were crushed in the crash. The Ministry of Railways announced that it will contribute one million rupees (approximately 11,000 euros) to the families of the victims and 200,000 rupees (approximately 2,200 euros) for the most seriously injured.
“I was sleeping,” one of the survivors told NDTVnews. “I woke up to the sound of the train going off the rails. Suddenly I saw 10-15 dead. I managed to get out of the wagon and then I saw a lot of mutilated bodies.” Hundreds of firefighters and police officers, as well as a hundred paramedics, are participating in the rescue operations.
The accident once again highlights the underdevelopment of India’s rail infrastructure despite transporting more than 13 million people every day. Today’s accident will be the second in the state of Bihar in 1981, after a train plunged from the bridge into the river, killing about 800 people.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
