SAINTHIA: A speeding express rammed into the back of a stationary passenger train in eastern India on Monday, killing at least 60 people and trapping others in several badly mangled carriages.
The standing train was waiting to leave Sainthia station in Birbhum district, 260 kilometres (160 miles) north of the West Bengal state capital Kolkata, when the express slammed into its rear.
The force of the impact lifted one wagon clear off the tracks and left it mounted on an overhead passenger bridge. An estimated 120 people were injured in the collision, 40 of them seriously, local police said.
Bodies and badly injured travellers were pulled from the crumpled mass of steel by emergency services and by members of a huge crowd of onlookers who had gathered around the site of the accident.
"The death toll has risen to 60," West Bengal Relief Minister Murtaza Hussain told AFP. "We have sent a relief team with gas cutters (blow torches) and other equipment for a speedy rescue operation."
He said the death toll would rise further, most likely above 60.
It was not immediately clear what caused the accident, which occurred at around 2:00am (2030 GMT Sunday) when most passengers were sleeping.
"I was fast asleep on the top berth when there was this huge crash like an explosion," one passenger told the Times Now news channel.
"I was flung from the berth, and then people started shouting and there was complete panic," he said.
Another survivor, Rajni Dhar, said she heard a loud bang and then she blacked out.
"When I regained consciousness, I screamed for help and was pulled out of the train compartment," she told a local news channel.
Most of the dead were in the rear "unreserved" carriages, which are usually tightly packed.
"We are still finding out the details and we will take all necessary steps and action and find out who is behind this calamity," Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters.
She announced compensation of 500,000 rupees (10,500 dollars) for the families of the dead and 100,000 rupees for the injured.
Heavy lifting equipment was rushed to the scene as well as soldiers and paramilitary forces, who helped maintain order and assist with the rescue operations.
"There are too many people at the accident site and this is hampering rescue efforts," Ravi Datta, a member of the disaster management team, told AFP.
The crash came less than two months after a train collision blamed on Maoist saboteurs killed nearly 150 people in West Bengal.
In that incident, a Mumbai-bound high-speed passenger express from Kolkata veered off the tracks into the path of an oncoming freight train. Police officials said a section of the track had been purposely removed.
The state-run railway system -- still the main form of long-distance travel in India despite fierce competition from new private airlines -- carries 18.5 million people daily.
There are hundreds of accidents on the railways every year, although the past five years have witnessed a marked decline in serious crashes.
In 2002, 100 people were killed and 150 hurt when a carriage plunged into a river in the northeastern state of Bihar, while in 1995 more than 300 died in a collision near Ferozabad, close to the Taj Mahal city of Agra.
BDST: 1300 HRS, July 19, 2010
