India train death toll rises to 120 with 850 others injured as two trains collide

At least 207 people have died with 900 injured in one of the worst rail accidents that has hit India.

Two passenger trains collided in Balasore, Odisha, East India on Friday, with rescuers frantically searching for others feared trapped under the carriages that have been derailed.

Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services said tonight that 120 people were dead with the number increasing, as the search for survivors continues continues in the area 1,000 miles northwest of the capital New Deli.

Mr Sarangi added: ‘A very sad incident and the prognosis is not good’.

The state’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena said earlier today that ‘about 850 injured people have been sent to hospitals’, with rescue work ongoing.

Rescuers were attempting to free 200 people trapped under derailed train cars.  

The trains which crashed in Balasore is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the state capital Bhubaneswar had been travelling in opposite directions.

One of the trains involved is reportedly the Coromandel Express which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, The Press Trust Agency of India said.

Nearly 500 police officers and rescue workers attended the accident with 75 ambulances and buses in tow, Pradeep Jena, the top bureaucrat of the Odisha state said.

Amitabh Sharma, a railroad ministry spokesperson, said that 10 to 12 coaches of one train had been derailed, while debris from some of the mangled coaches had fallen onto the nearby track.

Up to three coaches of the second train also derailed.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was ‘distressed’ by the incident.

Writing on Twitter he said: ‘Distressed by the train accident in Odisha. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families.

‘May the injured recover soon. Spoke to Railway Minister Ashwini Waishnaw and took stock of the situation.

‘Rescue operations are underway at the site of the mishap and all possible assistance is being given those affected.’ 

The collision is a ‘grave accident’, H K Dwivedi, West Bengal’s chief secretary told reporters. 

South Eastern Railway officials, who did not want to be named, said they fear there will a large number of casualties.

Over the years, India’s government has made efforts to improve rail safety, but despite this several hundreds of accidents still continue to occur annually on what is one of the largest train networks in the world.

The worst train accident in India’s history happened in August 1995 in New Deli, where 358 people were killed. 

Most train accidents are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.

More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.

This is a breaking news story – more follows.