BHUBANESWAR, India, June 2 (Portal) – At least 80 people were killed and 850 injured after two passenger trains collided in the east Indian state of Odisha on Friday, State Secretary Pradeep Jena said.
The Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, collided with another passenger train, the Howrah Superfast Express, railway officials said on Friday evening.
Pictures from the scene of the accident showed rescuers climbing the wreckage of one of the trains to find survivors.
Hundreds of young people lined up outside a government hospital in Odishas Soro to donate blood.
“I was there and I can see blood, broken limbs and people dying all around me,” an eyewitness told Portal.
[1/3] People try to flee from overturned compartments after the fatal collision of two trains on June 2, 2023 in Balasore, India. This screenshot is from a video. ANI/Portal TV via Portal
The Howrah Superfast Express derailed and became entangled with the Coromandel Express, South Eastern Railway authorities said in a statement.
Jena previously said hundreds of people had been taken to various local hospitals near the scene of the accident, adding that more than 200 ambulances were on duty to take accident victims to nearby hospitals.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the authorities’ priority is “to get the living to the hospitals, that’s our first concern to take care of the living”.
Rescue operations are underway at the site and “every possible assistance” is being provided to those affected, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet.
Rescue teams have been mobilized from Odishas Bhubaneswar and Kolkata in West Bengal, Federal Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a tweet.
The National Disaster Response Force, state government teams and the Air Force have also mobilized to respond to the incident, he added.
Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru, Jatindra Dash and Subrata Nag Choudhury Additional reporting by Shubhendu Satish Deshmukh; Adaptation by Frances Kerry and Rosalba O’Brien
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