Daily Times

NEW DELHI: Emergency crews searched mangled carriages Sunday for any further victims after a train crash in northern India killed 23 passengers, the fourth major accident this year on the crumbling network.

Another 156 people were injured when 14 carriages came off the tracks in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh state, 130 kilometres (80 miles) from New Delhi, on Saturday evening.

The coaches were left piled atop each other after the express train derailed at 100 kilometres per hour, crashing into nearby houses and a college.

Rescuers used gas-powered saws Sunday to prise apart the tangled metal and search the wreckage with sniffer dogs.

“We are checking the coaches thoroughly for any survivors or bodies,” Anant Dev, Muzaffarnagar district police chief, told AFP.

A large crowd gathered at the accident site to help free passengers from the damaged carriages, many of which were upended and torn open.

Some of the injured were seriously hurt but many had been released from hospital after receiving treatment, Dev added.

The government has ordered an inquiry into the accident amid speculation unscheduled maintenance work was underway at the time.

Mohammad Jamshed, a senior official with the government’s railway board, said some repair equipment was found near the accident site — indicating work was being carried out.

But he cautioned that the evidence was inconclusive and a thorough probe would unveil the exact cause of the crash.

“The investigation will deal with all the aspects, be it technical, human error or sabotage,” Jamshed told reporters.

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu vowed in a Twitter message to “fix responsibility” for the crash.

Authorities have also asked anti-terror officers to investigate whether sabotage was involved. The Utkal-Kalinga express left Puri, a temple city in India’s coastal east, on Thursday evening and was scheduled to arrive in the northern Hindu holy city of Haridwar, a 2,400 kilometre (1,500 mile) journey.

Published in Daily Times, August 21^1st 2017.