SFor hours, the rescue workers tried to rescue survivors from the heavy steel debris. Pictures showed the trains lying on top of each other, bent, crushed and torn open. According to eyewitnesses, the bodies of the victims were lined up on the ground, severed body parts between the wagons. According to the Indian press, a total of 288 people were dead and around 900 injured. The rescue work was declared over on Sunday and the authorities began the clean-up work. Aerial photos of the scene of the accident showed not only the overturned wagons but also debris on the rails, as well as excavators and cranes that were busy with the salvage work.
But the grief over one of the worst train accidents in India in decades has only just begun. “Words cannot express the extent of my grief,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after visiting the scene of the accident on Saturday. Messages of condolence were sent to the Indians from all over the world. The question of the cause of the disaster near Balasore in the eastern Indian state of Odisha is increasingly coming into focus. Was a simple signal error to blame, or human error? Have strangers perhaps manipulated the signaling system on the railway line?
Messages of condolences from all over the world
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said during a visit to the scene of the accident that the root cause and those responsible have already been identified. He referred to the signaling system but declined to give the exact details. They should only be published once a report has been completed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanded that the incident be investigated “from all angles” after visiting the scene of the accident. “Those responsible will be severely punished.” Messages of condolence have been sent from all over the world. US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill were “heartbroken”, according to a statement from the White House. Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his deep shock. “My thoughts are with the victims, the injured and their families. Germany stands by India at this difficult time,” wrote Scholz.
As well as the number of deaths, there was also different information about the course of the accident, which had already happened on Friday evening. It is clear that three different trains were involved. The Coromandel Express came from the West Bengal city of Kolkata and was en route to Chennai in the south of the country. The train derailed around 7 p.m. local time after hitting a freight train. The overturned wagons then blocked several adjacent tracks. Coming from the opposite direction, the express train from Yesvantpur in south Indian Karnataka to Howrah in West Bengal rammed some of the derailed wagons.
Survivors reported hearing a loud rumble as their train derailed. “Everything was shaking and we felt the wagon fall over,” Sanjay Mukhia told NDTV. “I suddenly felt the wagon tip over onto the rails on its left side. It then rolled over twice, throwing the passengers around so they fell on top of each other. As the wagon was turned upside down, someone broke through the emergency exit. Some managed to get out through the doors on either side,” said a passenger named Kiran. Outside, only the groans of the injured could be heard. Another witness had lost his family member: “It was completely dark in the wagon. I realized that my son was gone from us. I took out my son’s body with my own hands,” said the man named Sagai.
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