Asia-Pacific

Death toll from Indian train tragedy reaches 110

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-29 21:54
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Death toll from Indian train tragedy reaches 110
Indian soldiers and rescue workers carry an injured passenger at the site of a train accident at Jhargram area in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal May 28, 2010. [Agencies]

JHARGRAM, India - Rescue workers at Friday's train derailment and collision site here said the death toll from the tragedy stood at 110 by Saturday afternoon as more bodies were found in the debris of the smashed coaches, said police.

They also believe that the death toll might exceed 150 as one badly smashed bogie is yet to be searched completely while the number of the injured stood at 250 in the worst sabotage by extreme left-wing Naxal rebels upon trains so far in India.

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"So far 110 bodies have so far been recovered," West Bengal Police Inspector General Surajit Kar Purakayastha told Xinhua.

Volunteers of National Cadet Corps, personnel of the railway, army, Central Reserve Police Force and Combat Battalion for Resolute Action, along with a team of doctors and paramedics, were still active at the site located some 150 km from West Bengal's state capital Kolkata.

The railway rescue team is trying hard to restore the overhead traction and tracks damaged in about a two-kilometer stretch.

Meanwhile, a report has been filed at the Jhargram police station by the driver of the Howrah-Kurla Gyaneshwari Express train.

The report, called First Information Report (FIR), however, does not talk about the role of Naxal rebels or any other outfit which might have carried out the sabotage.

In the FIR, driver B.K. Das has said that he heard a loud sound which was quite similar to the sound of explosion and then he saw smoke coming out from the wheels of the train.

The driver further states that he soon figured out that a train was coming from the opposite direction. But the goods train rammed into the Gyaneshwari Express train despite the fact that he sounded an alert for the same train to stop.

Das filed the FIR against unknown persons with the Government Railway Police, Jhargam.