Fifty people were killed and 300 hospitalised in India after a passenger train derailed and collided with a goods train in Odisha’s Balasore district on Friday, according to media reports.
Rescue operations were under way at the site and “all possible assistance” is being given to those affected, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet on Friday.
The collision is a “grave accident”, H K Dwivedi, West Bengal’s chief secretary told reporters.
South Eastern Railway official, who did not want to be named, said they fear heavy casualties, without disclosing the number of deaths.
The Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, derailed and fell on the opposite track, with many people still trapped, the reports said.
“I can’t comment on the details right now and casualty figures. I was in Delhi and rushing to the accident site,” Archana Joshi, general manager for South Eastern Railways, told Reuters.
Joshi said a large number of injured were being shifted to hospitals.
“Railway rescue teams from Kharagpur and other nearby stations have already reached the site. Relief and rescue are under way.”
