- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The death toll in the horrific railway accident in Balasore district in the eastern Indian state of Odisha rose nearly 300 on Saturday (3), hours after one passenger train rammed into the derailed coaches of another, India Today reported. A goods train was also involved in the pile-up, said Odisha’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena.
More 900 people were injured.
Limbs scattered all over, says Odisha train accident survivor
The crash, one of the deadliest in India’s railway history, happened at Bahanaga Bazar railway station in Balasore, around 250 kilometres of Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal around 7.30 pm local time on Friday (2).
Modi expresses grief after Indian railways witnesses one of the deadliest crashes
After the बालासोर ट्रेन accident in #Odisha the local people showed humanity to help the injured, a huge crowd gathered to donate blood.🙏🙏#TrainAccident #Baleswar #CoromandelExpress बुलेट ट्रेन #OdishaTrainAccident #AshwiniVaishnaw pic.twitter.com/smqEGO6NNi
— गांव के छोरे (@goankechore) June 3, 2023
A massive rescue operation was launched and all nearby hospitals and district authorities were put on alert. Three units of the National Disaster Response Force; four units of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force; more than 15 fire rescue teams; 30 doctors; 200 police personnel and 60 ambulances were mobilised to the site of the accident, Jena told NDTV.
Here are 10 deadly train crashes in history of Indian Railways
Railwa minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tweeted saying the air force was also called in to aid the rescue operations. He also headed for the site on Friday night.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who was set to visit the site on Saturday, declared a day’s mourning in the state in view of the accident.
Vaishnaw announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh (£9,746) for the kin of those killed and Rs 2 lakh (£1,949) for the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 (£487) for those who received minor injuries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his distress over the accident, and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the family of the dead and Rs 50,000 for the injured from the PM’s National Relief Fund.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal to and from which the two ill-fated trains were operating, said she was closely monitoring the situation.
