Deadliest Train Crash in Decades: At Least 288 Dead, 850 Injured in Eastern India

By Staff, Agencies

Rescuers continue to look for survivors of the catastrophic triple train collision in India’s eastern state of Odisha, which has become the nation’s most fatal railway disaster in over 25 years.

The number of fatalities has grown to 288 by Saturday morning, Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of the Odisha state fire department announced. The official added that more than 850 were injured.

Images from the crash site showed smashed train compartments torn open with blood-stained holes near Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha.

Carriages had flipped over entirely in the crash late on Friday and rescue workers searched for survivors trapped in the mangled wreckage, with scores of bodies laid out under white sheets beside the tracks.

As dawn broke on Saturday, rescue workers were able to see the full extent of the carnage.

India is no stranger to railway accidents and has seen several disasters, the worst of them in 1981, when a train derailed while crossing a bridge in Bihar and plunged into the river below, killing between 800 and 1,000 people.

But Friday’s crash is believed to be the worst since the 1990s.