Thursday, November 26, 1998

India Train Crash Kills At Least 108

http://reuters.townnews.com/reuters/photos/MDF38726.JPG

Indian policemen stand guard over the

belongings of victims of a fatal train

accident in Kauri.

KAURI, India

A passenger train rammed into another train

in the northern Indian state of Punjab Thursday, killing at least

108 people and injuring about 150, police said.

The crash occurred at about 3:35 a.m.

(2205 GMT Wednesday) when the

Ambala-bound Sealdah Express rammed

into derailed coaches of the Frontier

Golden Mail near Kauri village.

Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said a

coupling between two coaches of the

Frontier Mail had broken, derailing

the train. Two minutes later, the

Sealdah Express crashed into the

carriages.

Villagers were the first to reach the accident site. Witnesses

said limbs of victims hung from carriages and rescue workers

struggled to pull bodies from the tangled wreckage.

Kumar said 73 bodies had been extricated from the mangled coaches

and another 35 bodies were being pulled out.

http://reuters.townnews.com/reuters/photos/MDF38721.JPG

Rescue workers carry the body of

a victim of the train crash in

Kauri, in the northern Indian

state of Punjab.

Over a dozen bodies covered

with white sheets lay near the smashed carriages.

More than a thousand people, many of them disconsolate relatives

of the passengers, gathered at the site.

Ram Kumar, one of the injured passengers, said: "Most passengers

were asleep when the accident took place. I was also asleep on my

seat.

"Suddenly I heard a loud thud and I fell down from my seat. I was

unconscious and later, when I regained consciousness, I was in the

hospital bed."

The injured were being admitted to

nearby hospitals. Most were in a

state of shock and could barely

speak.

Kauri, about 70 km (40 miles) from

Chandigarh, is on the outskirts of

Khanna, India's biggest grain market

town. Ambala is 45 km (28 miles) from

Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab.

The Frontier Mail was travelling from

the Indian capital, Delhi, to the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in

Punjab.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the railways authority

had ordered an inquiry into the crash.

Trains are the cheapest mode of transport across the sprawling

country. The Indian Railways system carries an estimated 11

million passengers every day.

India's worst train accident was in August 1995 when at least 350

were killed as two trains collided near Ferozabad town, 200 km

(125 miles) from New Delhi.

Reuters Limited