BALASORE, India — Rescuers have found no more survivors in the overturned and mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds in one of the country’s deadliest rail crashes in decades, officials said Saturday.
Chaotic scenes erupted Friday night as rescuers climbed atop the wrecked trains to break open doors and windows using cutting torches.
Bodies, covered by white sheets, lay on the ground near the tracks while rescuers and people who live nearby raced to free the hundreds trapped in the rail cars under the twisted metal and broken glass. Army soldiers and air force helicopters joined the effort in Odisha state as temperatures hit 96 degrees.
“By 10 p.m. [Friday], we were able to rescue the survivors. After that it was about picking up dead bodies,” said Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of Odisha state’s fire and emergency department. “This is very, very tragic. I have never seen anything like this in my career.”
At least 280 bodies were recovered overnight and into Saturday, he said. About 900 people were injured. The cause is under investigation.
The rail disaster occurred at a time Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focussing on the modernization of the British colonial-era railroad network in India, which has become the world’s most populous country, with 1.42 billion residents. Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India’s railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.
Modi flew to the crash site and spent half an hour examining the relief effort and speaking with to rescue officials.
Modi told reporters that it was a sad moment and that the government would do its utmost to help them and strictly punish those found responsible.
About 200 of the severely injured people were transferred to specialty hospitals in other cities in Odisha, said P.K. Jena, the state’s top administrative official. Another 200 were discharged after getting medical care. The rest were being treated in local hospitals, he said.
“The challenge now is identifying the bodies,” he said.
A survivor who did not give his name said he was sleeping when the impact woke him. He said he saw other passengers with broken limbs and disfigured faces.
The collision involved two trains, the Coromandel Express traveling from Howrah in West Bengal state to Chennai in Tamil Nadu state and the Howrah Superfast Express traveling from Bengaluru in Karnataka to Howrah, officials said. It was not clear which derailed first.
