New Delhi (BLAZETRENDS).- The Indian authorities affirmed this Saturday that they are “completely focused” on the search and rescue work in the east of the country, where yesterday there was a collision of three trains that has left at least 238 dead. and 900 injured, while launching an investigation into the event.
“We are completely focused on the rescue, on providing the best possible treatment for the injured and on informing the families,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Odisha state railway minister, told media from the crash site.
The event took place last Friday around 7:20 p.m. local time (1:50 p.m. GMT), in the Balasore district, and Vaishnaw announced an “in-depth” investigation into the causes of the accident.
The Indian railway authorities raised the death toll in the accident to 238 in their latest report, and reported that 650 injured were taken to nearby hospitals.
However, the total number of injured amounts to at least 900 people, as indicated in a televised intervention by the Secretary General of Odisha, Pradeep Jena, who also warned that the number of fatalities could increase.
“A wagon was severely damaged when it was hit by another wagon, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Odisha disaster management force are still working to april the wagon and try to recover the living or the dead. dead,” Jena said.
According to the Director General of Odisha Fire Services, Sudhanshu Sarangi, two passenger trains and one freight train were involved in the accident.
Although the authorities have not yet clarified the sequence of events, the accident occurred when a first passenger train covering the route between the cities of Shalimar, in Calcutta, and Chennai, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, derailed, whereupon a second train traveling from Yeswanthpur in Bangalore to Howrah in Calcutta collided with it.
A third freight train was also involved in what is already the worst rail accident in the last decade in the Asian country, and which has forced the cancellation of a dozen trains and the diversion of several others.
Authorities announced a day of mourning in the state and compensation of more than $12,000 for the deceased, about $2,500 for the seriously injured and $606 for those with minor injuries.
The Indian railway network is, with a length of 68,000 kilometers, the fourth in length in the world, behind the United States, Russia and China, it has some 21,650 trains and 7,349 stations throughout the country, and transports some 23 million passengers daily. passengers. BLAZETRENDS