Around 115 passengers were killed while over 200 others seriously injured when 14 bogies of the speeding Indore-Patna Express train derailed near Pukhrayan in Kanpur Dehat early Sunday morning due to suspected rail fracture.
Efforts were on to extract injured passengers entangled in coaches. Rescue operations were launched immediately as medical team and other teams rushed to the spot. Orders were issued for a probe into what led to the mishap.
Arrangements were made to take other passengers to Patna by a special train. ADG (law and Order) Daljit Chaudhary said over 100 passengers were killed while nearly 200 seriously injured. He said that rescue operations were on till late evening. Union Minister for State for Railway Manoj Sinha also reached the spot and took stock of the situation.
Meanwhile, expressing grief over the tragic mishap, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said officials concerned had been sent to the spot to monitor the rescue operation and help the victims in every possible way. He said several ambulances had been pressed into service for the rescue operation.
Meanwhile, Railways have announced a compensation of Rs 3.50 lakh, Chief Minister Rs 5 lakh, Prime Minister Rs 2 lakh and MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu assured all possible help to the kin of the deceased and those injured. All the injured passengers have been admitted to hospitals.
The rescue team also included the squad of engineers who were engaged in cutting the bogies to take out the passengers entangled in them. Norther Railway spoksperson Vijay Kumar said the cause of incident could not be ascertained so far. Several senior railway officials had already reached the spot, he added.
Prabhu said orders had been issued to the Rail Mobile Medical Unit to reach the spot at the earliest. He said stern penal action would be initiated against those found guilty.
According to reports, the derailment occurred at 3.15 am on Sunday. Sources said that the mishap occurred when the train driver applied emergency brakes. While some bogies remained intact, others were reduced to half their sizes. Several bodies, cut into pieces, were seen lying near the mishap site with others trapped in damaged bogies crying for help.
Of the four coaches, the S1 and S2 had telescoped into each other and most of the casualties were feared to have been in these two compartments. S3 and S4 coaches also suffered severe damage while an AC III tier coach was also affected but casualties in it were not heavy.
As railway personnel assisted by those of army, NDRF and state police carried out the search and rescue operation, the number of casualties kept on increasing by the hour. By evening, 115 bodies were recovered and taken to Mati mortuary in Kanpur rural.
Among the dead, 43 have been identified, of which 20 are from Uttar Pradesh, 15 from Madhya Pradesh and six from Bihar and one each from Maharashtra and Bihar. The post-mortem of 27 identified bodies has been done and they were being handed over to the families. Ambulance facilities were also being provided to the families of the victims to transport the bodies, officials said.
Army man Prabhu Narayan Singh, Anil Kishore of BSF from Rohtas, Bihar, and UP police constable lakhan Singh from Jhansi were among the dead.
Officials said that prima facie, the cause of the accident could be due to track fracture. Member (Engineering) of the Railway Board will find out the cause of the mishap and action will be taken against those responsible, he said. With several passengers feared trapped, rescue personnel employed cold cutters to break open the compartments as gas cutters produced excessive heat and suffocation hampering their efforts.
A number of trapped passengers were rescued. Teams of army doctors, railway officials and personnel of NDRF, state PAC and other policemen were involved in carrying out rescue and relief operation.
DG Health & ADG (law and Order) also rushed to the accident spot to monitor the relief operations. Buses were pressed into service to help passengers complete their journey, Kumar said. Railways have made available the following helpline numbers — Indore-07411072, Ujjain- 07342560906, Ratlam- 074121072, Orai-051621072, Jhansi- 05101072, Pokhraya- 05113270239.
North Central Railway General Manager Arun Srivastava said traffic on Kanpur-Jhansi section will be opened in 36 hours. NDRF Director General RK Pachnanda said that a total of five teams of the special rescue force, comprising 45 personnel each, were pressed into action at the accident site.
“The rescue teams are deploying cutters and hydraulic equipment to ensure that all the trapped passengers are evacuated safely from the rail bogies,” the DG, who reached the accident site, said. “As the victims are trapped inside the bogies, due care and diligence is being taken into consideration,” he said. NDRF responders were making all possible efforts to rescue the trapped victims with the help of multi-types of latest disaster management gadgets and tools. NDRF rescued at least 53 passengers including 16 badly trapped from the bogies. Among them were two children.