No fewer than seven people were killed when an express passenger train and a commodities train collided on Monday in India’s West Bengal state, derailing three passenger cars, according to authorities.
Images on Indian networks showed the tangled wreckage of carriages twisted on their sides, with one thrown far into the air and dangerously poised on the other.
Police said rescuers were searching the mangled trains for more bodies.
“We have confirmation of seven deaths and 39 passengers admitted at a local hospital with various injuries,” local police officer Iftikar-Ul-Hassan told AFP.
The accident is the latest to hit India’s creaking rail network, which carries millions of passengers daily.
“We just saw the bodies of a dead driver and a guard. Their bodies were taken out,” Rajesh Kumar Singh, from the Railway Protection Force, told AFP.
“Some more bodies may be under the crash site, but we don’t yet know for sure.”
In a social media message, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to “those who lost their loved ones” and stated that “rescue operations are underway.”
According to Banerjee, the disaster occurred in the Phansidewa area of Darjeeling district when the Kanchenjunga Express train collided with a cargo train.
The Railways Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said the “injured are being shifted to the hospital.”
India has one of the world’s largest rail networks and has experienced multiple tragedies over the years, the deadliest of which occurred in 1981 when a train crashed while crossing a bridge in Bihar state, killing an estimated 800 people.
