Balasore/Bhubneshwar, Jun 3 : As rescuers use gas torches and electric cutters to extract survivors and the dead from the mangled steel of three trains that derailed one Officials and witnesses reported Saturday that a horrible sequence of explosions in Odisha’s Balasore district killed at least 238 people and injured more than 900. Huge cranes and bulldozers have been brought in to raise a coach that has been buried by the impact of another waggon falling on.200 ambulances, 50 buses, and 45 mobile health units, in addition to 1,200 employees, were working at the disaster site, according to Bhubaneswar officials. Tractors were among the several types of vehicles used to transport the bodies to the hospitals.At the Odisha state secretariat in Bhubaneshwar on Saturday, Chief Secretary PK Jena announced that the death toll from the Balasore Train Accident had increased to 238, according to Jena.
Around 7 p.m. on Friday, the Railway Ministry ordered an investigation into the train collision, which according to records is the fourth deadliest in India. It happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in the Balasore district, around 170 kilometres north of Bhubaneswar and 250 kilometres south of Kolkata. According to a statement from the Indian Railways, A M Chowdhary, Commissioner Railway Safety, South East Circle, will be in charge of the investigation into the train disaster. The Ministry of Civil Aviation is responsible for the Commissioner of Railway Safety.
Although the cause of the disaster is unknown, sources suggest a potential signalling failure.
On the approach to Howrah, several coaches of the 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express derailed and landed on nearby lines, according to an official.”These derailed coaches collided with the 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and its coaches capsized too,” he claimed.
Part of the coaches on the Coromandel Express, which was headed to Chennai, collided with the waggons of a cargo train that was also involved in the accident, he continued.
Amitabh Sharma, the spokesperson for the railways, told that the Video of Bengaluru-Howrah Express had to jump off the tracks because the Coromandel Express had derailed first and its 10 to 12 coaches had fallen on that line.The accident scene appeared as though a strong whirlwind had carelessly and “wrathfully” stacked train cars on top of one another from a nearby hill.
Closer to the ground, bloodied and deformed bodies were entangled with mangled steel, producing a horrifying scene.
Some of the scenes at the scene were too horrifying to describe, a passenger said.
The nearby railway tracks were practically entirely destroyed as wrecked coaches lay scattered everywhere, some of which had mounted on others and others of which had turned turtle from the impact.Pijush Poddar, a resident of Berhampore in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, was travelling to Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Express at the time of the incident to start a job there.
“We were immediately alarmed, and the train’s bogie swerved to the side. The derailment’s momentum threw many of us out of the compartment. We discovered dead lying around when we finally managed to escape,” he said.
Locals claimed they heard a series of loud noises, raced to the scene, and discovered the derailed coaches to be little more than “a mangled heap of steel.””The locals genuinely risked everything to assist us… Rupam Banerjee, one of the passengers, told reporters that they did more than just assist in getting people out of the way; they also got our baggage and water.
According to passengers, one of the coaches “was pushed into the ground” as another from a nearby train crashed on top of it.
Attempts are being made to free that specific bogie and retrieve the bodies inside. A state disaster assistance officer stated that “this will significantly increase the death toll.”
The Balasore District Hospital resembled a battlefield with injured people laying on stretchers in the hallway and rooms jam-packed with extra beds raised.A lot of the patients, many of whom were from states other than Odisha and had communication issues, were being helped by frazzled medical staff. 526 victims of railway accidents have been admitted to this one hospital in all.
According to officials, police officers and citizens have been donating blood all night long at this hospital and many others. In the middle of the night, more than 2,000 people came at the Balasore Medical College and Hospital to assist the injured. Many of them also gave blood, according to officials.Many of the bodies in the mortuary at the hospital were still unidentified because relatives haven’t arrived in the town and numerous train services have been cancelled or delayed as a result of the disaster on a major railway trunk line.
Following the fatal triple train tragedy, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday proclaimed a day of national mourning.
According to State Special Relief Commissioner Satyabrata Sahoo, the accident victims were being treated at various hospitals.
All public and private hospitals in the surrounding districts are in operation, including the AIIMS in Bhubaneswar.
Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw arrived at the location in the morning.The railroads offered ex-gratia payments of Rs. 10 lakh for the surviving family members of the deceased, Rs. 2 lakh for those who suffered severe injuries, and Rs. 50,000 for those who had suffered minor wounds.
Announcing an additional ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the surviving family members of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured from the PM’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his sorrow over the accident.
“Upset about the train crash in Odisha. My thoughts are with the grieving families during this difficult time. May those who were hurt quickly heal. I discussed the subject with Railway Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw over the phone. All available help is being provided to those affected, and rescue operations are currently taking place at the scene of the accident, he tweeted.Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed concern over the accident, in which many people from West Bengal were involved, and said she was keeping an eye on the situation with the chief secretary and other officials.
West Bengal Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi announced that the state was sending a delegation to the area, led by MP Dola Sen and minister Manas Bhunia.
The accident, which occurred on the Howrah-Chennai main line in the Kharagpur division of the South Eastern Railway, has so far resulted in the cancellation of 18 long-distance trains.
