The deadliest rail tragedy in India in more than 20 years claimed at least 288 lives and injured hundreds more, according to officials on Saturday.
At the collision site at Balasore in the eastern state of Odisha, wreckage debris was piled high. Some carriages had been thrown far from the rails, while others had completely flipped over.
Late on Friday, the impact tore open smashed railway compartments, leaving blood-stained holes in their sides.
Survivor Arjun Das told a Bengali television channel he heard a thundering sound, then saw people falling from upper berths.
He jumped out of the train. “People were screaming, shouting for help,” he said.
“There were injured lying everywhere inside coaches and along the tracks. I want to forget the scenes.”
The catastrophe started when a northbound express train from Bengaluru, India’s tech hub, to Kolkata derailed and fell onto the nearby southbound track.
A few minutes later, the Coromandal Express, which was traveling from Kolkata to Chennai, crashed into the debris, with some of its coaches also striking a nearby freight train.
Numerous dead were spread out next to the tracks on Saturday as rescue personnel looked for trapped survivors inside the twisted wreckage.
According to Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, the death toll currently stands at 288 but is projected to rise to possibly close to 380.
