Balasore, India - Carriages perched on top of each other and lines of bodies collected by rescue workers: as dawn broke on Saturday, it revealed the horror of one of India's deadliest railway crashes.
Involving two passenger trains and another carrying goods, the accident saw one train ram so hard into another that carriages were lifted high into the air, twisting and then smashing off the tracks. Another carriage had been tossed entirely onto its roof, crushing the passenger section. On the ground -- and squashed into the ripped metal wreckage and what were once benches in the carriage -- travelers' belongings lay scattered: a suitcase, a child's shoe, and piles of clothes.
At least 288 people were killed and more than 850 injured in the crash on Friday night near Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha, officials said, with many fearing the death toll could rise.
Operation is still continuing. So far state govt has announced 238 dead and more than 900 injured. Hopefully, by today evening, we should be able to close the operation. NDRF has nine teams there - seven from Odisha and two from West Bengal. Almost all the live victims have been sent to hospital so nine teams are sufficient..," said an official.
Overnight, images broadcast on local television stations showed long lines of bodies laid out with white sheets covering some, as rescue workers carried them away on stretchers. Teams using metal cutting tools prised open gaps in the torn sides of carriages in a desperate search to reach those trapped inside, pulling out survivors and bodies.
Rescue teams dressed in orange overalls and wearing face masks, including officers from India's National Disaster Response Force, carried those they could extract to get aid. Throughout the night, the death toll jumped repeatedly, as emergency services added up the number of bodies collected: from 50, to over 100, to nearly 300. Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, speaking at the site to AFP, warned of "serious injuries". The near-constant sound of ambulance sirens wailed in the background, rushing those pulled out of the wreckage alive to the hospital.
With so many hurt, buses also carried the injured to medical centres. From a distance, residents stood watching the efforts. In nearby hospitals, volunteers lined up to give blood, with medics overwhelmed by the scale of the need.
Huge crowds gathered at the entrance of Bhadrak District Hospital, standing in shock as ambulance after ambulance arrived. Dazed and bloodied passengers waited for help, as doctors rushed to stem the bleeding and support those most critically injured. bur-pjm/slb/dva
With hundreds killed and more injured in a three-train collision in India, AFP looks back on some of the worst rail disasters of the last 10 years:
- Greek collision - On February 28, 2023, a head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train on the route between Athens and Thessaloniki claimed 57 lives, in the country's worst rail accident.
- Stowaways derailed - On March 10, 2022, a freight train loaded with stowaways derailed in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Lualaba province, killing at least 75 people and injuring 125 others. A month later, at least eight people died when a goods train derailed in the same area.
- Pakistan farmlands - On June 7, 2021, at least 63 people died when a train hurtling through farmland derailed and collided with another passenger service in Pakistan's southern Sindh province.
- Taiwan tragedy - On April 2, 2021, at least 49 people were killed and 200 injured when a passenger train collided with a truck that slid down an embankment near the city of Hualien -- the island's worst rail disaster in decades. - Pakistan pilgrims
- At least 74 people died and more than 40 were injured on October 31, 2019, when a fire broke out on an overcrowded passenger train carrying pilgrims to a religious gathering near Lahore.
- Crowds on tracks - A speeding train ran over revelers watching fireworks during a Hindu festival in northern India on October 19, 2018, killing at least 60 people. - Indian Express disaster - At least 146 people died when an Indore-Patna Express train with around 2,000 people on board derailed in Uttar Pradesh on November 20, 2016, sending carriages crashing into each other.
- Speeding Cameroon train - A train traveling from the capital Yaounde to the economic hub of Douala derailed on October 21, 2016, killing at least 79 people and injuring around 550 others. It was traveling "abnormally" fast before the crash, the investigation into the crash concluded.
- Congo accident - A goods train carrying hundreds of illegal passengers flew off the rails in a swampy and inaccessible part of the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo on April 22, 2014, killing at least 136 people.
Many had to be buried in mass graves nearby. - Spain derailing - About 80 people were killed and about 140 injured when a high-speed train slammed into a concrete wall near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela on July 24, 2013. The train had been approaching a curve at more than twice the speed limit.
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