Train collision kills at least eight in eastern India - VIDEO

At least eight people were killed and dozens of others injured after a cargo train collided with a passenger train in eastern India on Monday, according to authorities, as a top official ordered a major emergency response, News.Az reports citing CNN.

The Kanchenjunga Express, which runs between the city of Kolkata and Silchar in northeastern Assam state, was struck by a freight train south of the city of Siliguri, according to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Disaster teams have rushed to the crash location, which lies below the foothills that lead to Darjeeling, a popular mountain tourist destination famous for its tea plantations and stunning Himalayan views.

Local media pictures and video footage from the scene showed at least one train car on its side, parts of it crushed into a mass of twisted metal. Another car can be seen rising into the air at a steep angle above an engine carriage.

Northeast Frontier Railway spokesperson Sabyasachi De told CNN at least eight people were killed in the crash.

Some 30 people were injured, Darjeeling police superintendent Abhishek Roy told reporters. Passengers were being transferred to New Jalpaiguri, the nearest city and largest railway junction in northeast India, he added.

The crash comes more than a year after India experienced one of the worst train disasters in the country’s history, when more than 280 people were killed in a three-way collision involving two passenger trains and a freight train in eastern Odisha state.

That incident shocked the nation, renewing calls for authorities to confront safety issues in a railway system that transports more than 13 million passengers every day.

India’s extensive rail network, one of the largest in the world, was built more than 160 years ago under British colonial rule. Today, it runs about 11,000 trains every day over 67,000 miles of tracks in the world’s most populous nation.

More than 16,000 people were killed in nearly 18,000 railway accidents across the country in 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Most railway accidents were due to falls from trains and collisions between trains and people on the track. Train-on-train collisions are less common.

Five people were killed and more than 30 injured when two #trains collided in eastern #India. pic.twitter.com/9EV87HRnOL

— News.Az (@news_az) June 17, 2024

News.Az