2023-06-03 12:30:18
At least 288 people were killed and more than 850 injured in a collision between three trains in eastern Indianear Balasore in Odisha state, authorities said on Saturday, in the country’s worst rail disaster in more than 20 years.
Odisha fire chief Sudhanshu Sarangi said the death toll was 288 but might rise.
India has experienced several such disasters in the past, but this catastrophe is considered the deadliest since the 1990s.
The disaster was caused by the derailment of an express train from Bengaluru to Calcutta in the northeast, which fell onto the adjacent track heading south. Minutes later, the Coromandal Express, which was going from Calcutta to Chennai, crashed into the rubble. Some of its wagons also collided with a freight train parked nearby.
Fatal train crash in India
European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her condolences to India on the occasion of the rail accident.
“Terrible news from India. I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the Odisha train accident and wish a speedy recovery to the injured. The people of India are in our thoughts at this time of grief,” Von der Leyen posted on Twitter.
“Europe cries with you,” added the president of the Community Executive in a message addressed to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, also expressed through social networks his “deepest condolences” to the people of India following the “tragedy”, and offered help from the European Union.
“We share your pain and sincerely wish all the victims a speedy recovery. The EU stands ready to assist in any way we can,” Michel wrote.
deadliest rail accident
The deadliest rail accident in the country dates back to June 6, 1981 in the state of Bihar (east), where seven train carriages plunged from a bridge into a river, causing between 800 and 1,000 deaths.
More recently, on November 20, 2016, a train with 2,000 passengers derailed in the state of Uttar Pradesh (north) while most were sleeping, causing 146 deaths and 180 injuries. In this century, India has had 13 train accidents with more than 50 victims, three of them the result of attacks.
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