NEW DELHI — At least nine people were killed and dozens injured Monday when a freight train collided with a passenger train in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, authorities said.
Local television stations broadcast images showing the engine of one train under the last car of the other and which remained suspended in the air. Doctors, rescuers and ambulances quickly arrived at the scene of the crash, which occurred in the district of Darjeeling, a tourist town at the foot of the Himalayas. Many people who live in the area came to the place.
Three of the nine dead were railway staff, said Sabyasachi De, spokesperson for Northeast Frontier Railway. About 50 people were hospitalized.
The driver of the freight train, who died from his injuries, failed to heed a signal and caused the crash, De said. Four cars at the back of the passenger train derailed due to the impact, he added. Most of the cars carried merchandise, although one was for passengers.
He added that rescuers have finished searching for more passengers and that crews are now focusing on repairing damaged tracks and removing derailed cars. The rest of the carriages, carrying around 1,300 passengers, continued towards their original destination, Calcutta, the state capital, he detailed.
Said rescuers have finished searching for any more passengers, with workers now focused on restoring the damaged tracks and removing the derailed coaches. The rest of the coaches, carrying around 1,300 passengers, continued to their original destination of Kolkata, the state’s capital, he said.
The Kanchanjunga Express is a daily train that connects the state of West Bengal with cities in the northeast of the country. It often carries tourists traveling to the Darjeeling hill station, popular at this time of year when many Indian cities suffer from high temperatures.
More than 12 million people travel daily on 14,000 trains in India, which has 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track. Despite the government’s efforts to improve railway safety, hundreds of accidents occur every year. Most are attributed to human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 280 people died last year in a train accident in eastern India, one of the worst accidents of its kind in the country in several decades.
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