Two dead, dozens injured in Indian train derailment
Two people were killed and at least 26 others injured when 15 coaches of the Ajmer-Sealdah Express train derailed on the Rura - Metha route near Kanpur. Picture: EPA Two people were killed and at least 26 others injured when 15 coaches of the Ajmer-Sealdah Express train derailed on the Rura - Metha route near Kanpur. Picture: EPA
New Delhi - Two people were killed and 26 others were injured
when a train derailed in India early Wednesday, police said.
Fifteen cars of an express train came off the track about 50
kilometres outside the city of Kanpur in the northern state of Uttar
Pradesh around 5:20 am (23:50 GMT), a railways spokesman said.
The train was travelling between Ajmer, in the northern state of
Rajasthan, and Sealdah, a station in the eastern metropolis Kolkata.
"Two people died of their injuries in hospital. Another 26 people are
being treated," said regional police chief Zaki Ahmed.
Two coaches fell into a dry canal alongside the tracks, broadcaster
India Today reported.
Medical and rescue teams had reached the site from Kanpur.
"Our focus is now on rescue, after which we will have to clear the
coaches from the tracks to enable services on the route to resume,"
Indian Railways spokesman Anil Saxena said.
The cause of the accident was not clear, Saxena said. Railways
Minister Suresh Prabhu said a "thorough investigation will be carried
out to ascertain the cause."
In November, 146 people were killed when a train derailed at
Pukhrayan near Kanpur.
India's railways carry an estimated 20 million passengers daily and
have a poor safety record.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, over 25 000 people
have been killed in railway accidents each year since 2010.