The Coromandel Express, traveling from Howrah to Chennai, derailed and hit a standing goods train around 7 p.m. on Friday. The Superfast Express running from Bangalore to Howrah carrying a thousand passengers collided into the previous crash site shortly after, leaving a total of 17 derailed compartments, Chief Spokesperson of the South Eastern Railway Aditya Kumar Chaudhary told The Washington Post.
Images and videos of the wreck showed overturned and derailed train cars, some of them several feet away from the site of impact, not far from dozens of dead bodies covered by white sheets. Witnesses to the crash described how people attempted to pull survivors from the mangled steel mess amid loud emergency bells and the heartbreaking cries of the wounded.
Medical officer D. Jagatdeo at Balasore District Hospital said on Saturday afternoon that 1053 patients had arrived, out of which 183 were already deceased and another 55 died at the hospital. “I have never seen something like this in my life. This is the first time we have received so many patients,” he said in a phone conversation from his office, where he had been stationed since the previous night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the crash site and a nearby hospital Saturday, while Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took a tour of the area.
Only two past railway incidents in the country — both collisions — resulted in higher death tolls. Both occurred in the 1990s.
India boasts one of the world’s largest railway networks, behind the United States, China and Russia, and the railway is one of the world’s largest employers as well as one of the most affordable forms of transport in the country, carrying 13 million people every day.
Modi has led high-profile campaigns to modernize the country’s railway infrastructure — with high-speed bullet trains and state-of-the-art designs. The campaigns came under criticism after Friday’s crash, as detractors argued the country should focus on improving existing infrastructure rather than building new high-tech models.
Sachin Gupta, a group commander with the Indian Air Force and a passenger on the Coromandel Express, said the jolt sent him and his laptop flying into the seat in front of him. When he walked outside of the coach, he saw bodies strewn across the train tracks and a nearby ditch, and he heard loud shouting from people stuck inside the mess. By 9 p.m., he saw the authorities come with gas cutters and lighting machines to pry open the steel entanglement.
“It was a disastrous situation. Everyone was asking for help,” he said. “There was so much damage. It looked like cars had gone inside of each other.”
Manas Bhunia, a minister from neighboring West Bengal state who visited the scene Friday night, said it was a “terrifying accident.” He saw local residents help carry dead bodies out of the crash site. “I’ve never seen an accident like this ever before in my life. The situation is very serious,” he said in an interview Saturday morning.
Member of Parliament from West Bengal Dola Sen also arrived Friday night and saw that the local villagers were the first to help in the rescue.
“We are all in shock. It is very painful. I have never seen in my life such a huge accident on a railway track. Whoever still has life in them, we need to get them treatment right away,” she said from the crash site Saturday morning. “The railway track, the electrical lines, the electrical posts — everything is entangled.”
Sen said that a large crane sent to the scene was not powerful enough to separate the derailed compartments. “After lifting, who knows what we will find.”
Teams from the Indian Army, Navy, and National Disaster Response Force joined the effort on the ground, while the Air Force deployed helicopters for rescue. Disaster responders and doctors from nearby states joined in the effort. Volunteers donated 500 units of blood overnight to help the injured, Jena said on Twitter.
Modi said all possible assistance would be given to those affected. “Distressed by the train accident in Odisha,” he said on Twitter. “In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon.”
Railway Minister Vaishnaw told Asian News International, an Indian news agency, that there would be a probe into the cause of the accident. He announced shortly after the crash that victims and their families would be compensated: About $12,000 would be given to the families of those killed, while people who had suffered “grievous” and “minor” injuries would receive $2,400 and $600 respectively. Some regional and opposition politicians have called for Vaishnaw’s resignation in response to the crash.
The state government declared that Saturday would be a day of mourning.
Several countries expressed their condolences, including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and the Embassy of Italy. A U.S. State Department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said on Twitter: “We are monitoring news of the horrific train crash in Odisha, India. Our thoughts are with the people of India at this time.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that the images and reports from the crash “break my heart,” while U.K. foreign minister James Cleverly offered his “heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.”
Anshuman Purohit, a 46-year-old advertising professional from Singapore who was traveling first class in the Coromandel Express to visit his family in Odisha, said he smelled pungent smoke after a loud thud and rushed out of the coach with other passengers. “I realized how disastrous it was when I walked down the road and saw what had become of the other compartments,” he said. “It is a miracle how I survived.”
Vinall reported from Melbourne, Australia. Mikhail Kilmentov and Kyle Rempfer contributed reporting from Washington.
