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Indian train jumps tracks; 18 killed, 100 hurt

Posted on: Monday, 3 October 2005, 06:35 CDT

By Sanjay Sharma

BHOPAL, India (Reuters) - A crowded train sped through a railway station in central India, jumped the tracks and crashed into a signal cabin on Monday, killing 18 passengers and injuring about 100, authorities said.

The death toll was likely to rise as many passengers remained trapped inside the carriages and 40 of the injured were in a critical condition, they said.

Six coaches of the Bundelkhand Express derailed near Datia town in Madhya Pradesh, about 250 miles north of the state capital, Bhopal, a police officer said.

He said the train derailed near the Datia station and rescue teams, including soldiers, had reached the site and were removing passengers from the cars.

The officer said the train had been due to stop at the station but sped through and jumped the tracks in an area where coaches are serviced and cleaned.

"We suspect the brakes of the train failed," he added.

It crashed into the signal cabin beside the tracks and the impact left coaches piled one on top of the other, railway officials said.

"We have people trapped in the bogies (carriages). They (rescue teams) are cutting into the bogies and we will see how many people are trapped inside," Datia district administrator Caroline Khongwar told NDTV news channel.

A.K. Soni, a senior state police officer, said 18 bodies had been found and rescue work continued. Many of the injured had been taken to hospitals in nearby Jhansi town as Datia did not have adequate medical facilities.

TV images showed the blue carriages of the train twisted in a mass of metal and some cars had telescoped into the carriage ahead while others had risen skywards. The driver of the train was among the dead.

"The train's speed limit was supposed to be 15 (kilometers per hour/9 miles per hour) but as far as I have been able to find out, it was going at 90 at the station," said Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The train was going from the Hindu holy town of Varanasi in neighboring Uttar Pradesh to Gwalior city in Madhya Pradesh.

India has one of the world's biggest railway networks, running almost 12,000 trains daily carrying more than 13 million people. It registers about 300 accidents each year.

In April, a passenger train slammed into a stationary goods train in western India, killing 17 people and injuring dozens.

Experts say the rail system, saddled with huge losses because of rock-bottom fares and a massive workforce, has little money to invest in improving safety and infrastructure.

Source: REUTERS

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