A passenger train derailed this Sunday, August 6, in southern Pakistan, leaving at least 30 dead and 80 injured, according to local authorities. Rescue teams continue to work to remove more passengers who may have been trapped. This type of accident occurs with some frequency, especially due to the obsolescence of the railway system.
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A dozen carriages of a passenger train derailed near the Nawabshah district in Sindh province.
The train was heading from the southern city of Karachi (the most populous in the country) to the town of Sargodha, in the eastern province of Punjab, the spokesman for the state railway company, Pakistan Railways, Muhammed Anjum, told EFE.
Rescue teams are currently in the area of the accident, where they are working to raise the cars that derailed after the link between the locomotive and the rest of the train separated, Zardari reported.
However, the high temperatures in the region, as well as the need to use cranes to lift the cars and special tools to cut the metal to rescue the passengers are delaying operations.
Medical personnel also traveled to the place to treat the injured, who are being transferred to hospitals in nearby towns.
a time bomb
Accidents on Pakistan’s failing rail system are common because its old rail network dates back to the days of the British Empire, from which it gained independence in 1947.
Governments have been trying for years to raise funds to improve the rail network as part of the Chinese Initiative “Belt and Roadfor infrastructure projects.
Added to its antiquated infrastructure is the threat of attacks by insurgent groups, such as the one that took place last Februarywhen a separatist group, operating in the east of the country, carried out a bombing attack on a moving train that left at least one woman dead and seven others injured.
In 2021, a collision between two trains in southern Pakistan it resulted in 62 deaths in addition to thirty wounded. In October 2019, a total of 73 people died from a cylinder explosion of gas that some passengers used to prepare breakfast on a train in the south of the country.
With EFE, AFP, Reuters and local media
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