Carriages fall into ravine as Pakistani train derails

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – At least six carriages of a Pakistani
passenger train that may have been carrying up to 400
passengers derailed on Sunday and plunged into a ravine, a
railways minister said, but he had no word on casualties.

Troops were working under searchlight to reach passengers
trapped in the wreckage of the train traveling from Rawalpindi,
a city adjoining the capital Islamabad, to the eastern city of
Lahore.

Ishaq Khakwani, the junior minister for railways, said at
least six carriages plunged 50-100 feet down a ravine near the
central city of Jhelum.

“I don’t know exactly how many casualties there are. But if
a train falls down 50 or 100 feet, there may be many injuries,”
he told Reuters.

“We are gathering information, but our initial information
says six carriages have derailed,” he said.

“Up to 400 passengers may have been on the carriages that
have derailed. We pray that there are not many casualties. It’s
all dark, we are trying our best to rescue people.”

Pakistan’s military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan
said troops had reached the site, and had taken searchlights,
generators and medics, but contact with the rescue team had
been lost as it descended the ravine.

Marwat Ali Shah, the deputy inspector general of police in
Rawalpindi, said he had reports that nine carriages had
derailed and it appeared to be a big accident, although he also
had no reports of casualties.

“Our teams are moving there. The army has also moved some
teams,” he said. “We have asked for hospitals in the region to
vacate beds.”

Shah said some passengers had spoken by mobile telephone to
relatives.

“They are saying that the situation does not look too bad,
but to me it seems to be a big, big accident, because
derailment in this area means going down very deep ravines.”

Last July, at least 133 people died in a three-train
pile-up in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh.

That accident occurred when a crowded passenger train
rammed into another at a station and a third train then plowed
into the wreckage. About 2,000 people, many of them asleep,
were on the trains.

In Pakistan’s worst train crash, 307 people were killed in
1990 when a packed passenger train smashed into a freight
train, also in Sindh province. A train crash in Punjab province
killed 136 people in 1997.