At least 288 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a three-train collision in India, officials said Saturday, the country’s deadliest rail accident in more than 20 years.
Wreckage debris was piled high at the crash site near Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha, where some carriages had been tossed far from the tracks and others flipped over entirely.
Smashed train compartments were torn open in the impact late on Friday, leaving blood-stained holes in their sides.
Survivor Arjun Das told a Bengali television channel he heard a thundering sound, then saw people falling from upper berths.
He jumped out of the train. “People were screaming, shouting for help,” he said.
“There were injured lying everywhere inside coaches and along the tracks. I want to forget the scenes.”
The disaster began when an express train running north from India’s tech hub Bengaluru to Kolkata derailed, falling onto the adjacent southbound track.
Minutes later, the Coromandal Express heading from Kolkata to Chennai smashed into the wreckage, some of its coaches also colliding with a goods train parked nearby.
Researcher Anubhav Das was in the last carriage of the second train when he heard “screeching, horrifying sounds coming from a distance”.
His coach stayed upright and he jumped out unhurt after it ground to a halt.
“I saw bloodied scenes, mangled bodies and one man with a severed arm being desperately helped by his injured son,” the 27-year-old told AFP.
“I lost count of the bodies before leaving the site. Now I now feel almost guilty.”
Rescue workers searched for survivors trapped in the mangled wreckage Saturday, with scores of bodies laid out under white sheets beside the tracks.
Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, said the death toll stood at 288 but was expected to go higher, potentially approaching 380.
“Many people who have been rushed to hospitals are succumbing there and we are still taking out the dead bodies,” he told AFP from the accident site.
“The rescue work is still ongoing here as there are some bodies under the bogies and teams are trying to lift them to get them out.”
