At least 120 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 in the wee hours of Sunday due to suspected rail fracture.
The number of casualties is expected to rise as a few more passengers were feared trapped in the mangled coaches and the rescue operation continued in the night under floodlights.
The derailment that took place around 3.15 am was the worst train accident in recent years. Sources said that the accident 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 accident site with others trapped in damaged bogies crying for help.
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 accident.
According to IG (Kanpur range) Zaki Ahmad, by 8 pm, 120 bodies were recovered and most of them taken to Mati mortuary in Kanpur rural.
Arrangements were made to take other passengers to Patna by a special train. ADG (law and Order) Daljit Chaudhary said that rescue operations were still on till late evening.
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.
Railways 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.
Meanwhile, President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and a host of other leaders condoled the loss of lives in the train tragedy.
While Akhilesh announced compensation of Rs5 lakh for the kin of each of the dead in the accident, Modi sanctioned Rs2 lakh. On his part, the Railway Minister enhanced the ex-gratia grant from Rs2 lakh to Rs3.5 lakh to the families of the dead.
The UP Government will give Rs50,000 to those seriously injured and Rs25,000 for those with simple injuries.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who visited the injured in hospitals in Kanpur Urban, announced Rs2 lakh for kin of each of the deceased and Rs50,000 for the injured.
Among the dead, 62 have been identified. At least 20 are from Uttar Pradesh, 15 from Madhya Pradesh and six from Bihar and one each from Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The post-mortem of 27 identified bodies has been done and they were handed over to the families. Ambulance facilities were also being provided to the families of the victims to transport the bodies, officials said.
Armyman 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, they 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.
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,” said the DG, who reached the accident site. “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 from the 16 badly mangled bogies. Among them were two children.