More than 200 people are injured as express train derails near northern city of Kanpur in early hours

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

At least 120 people are said to have have been killed and at least 200 more injured after a train derailed near the city of Kanpur in northern India in the country’s worst train crash since 2010.



Hundreds of people were trapped after 14 carriages of the express train, travelling from Indore to Patna, crumpled into one another as they came off the tracks on Sunday. The train derailed near the village of Purwa, about 40 miles (65km) from Kanpur.

The crash occurred at about 3am when the majority of passengers were asleep. Most of the victims were in two carriages near the engine that overturned.



“The death toll has reached 120. At least 200 others are injured,” Zaki Ahmad, the police inspector general of Kanpur zone, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Ruby Gupta, who was travelling to the city of Azamgarh for her wedding, searched the wreckage for her father.



“I cannot find my father and I have been looking everywhere for him,” she told an NDTV reporter. “Some people told me to look in hospitals and in morgues, but I am clueless as to what to do.”



Gupta lost her wedding clothes, jewellery and belongings in the derailment, but her biggest worry was finding her father, who was going to give her away at the wedding in two weeks’ time. “I do not know if my marriage will go as planned or not,” she said. “I want to find my father now. I have tried calling everywhere, but I do not know what to do.”



Nearby, a young boy who had also been on the train waited near the scene, hoping his father would be found alive by rescue workers. “The whole train was shaking,” he said. “My sisters and brothers were there. I found them all. I just can’t find my father.”



One elderly male passenger said: “At about 3am, the train started shaking. Then I don’t know what happened. The carriage overturned. We were in coach five. We were trying to open the door of the coach, but it wouldn’t budge. Somehow we managed to get out. The goddess Kali has saved us, or else none of us would have survived.”



While some looked for missing relatives or luggage, others waited in surrounding fields as rescue workers searched the site for bodies.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rescue officials assess the damage to one of the 14 carriages that derailed on the the Indore-Patna express route. Photograph: Prabhat/Pacific/ Barcroft Images

A list of 67 people who died has been released, and police are expected to name more as bodies are identified. More than 200 injured people were given emergency medical help at the scene or taken to nearby hospitals.

Television footage showed the carriages lying overturned near the tracks as anxious crowds looked on, some with bandaged limbs.



Emergency services and ambulances took longer than usual to reach the site because the incident took place in a rural area.

Medical trains from the nearby city of Jhansi were dispatched in the relief effort and cranes were deployed to lift the crushed carriages. National Disaster Response Force and army units used gas cutters to try to find survivors on Sunday morning, as hopes of finding people alive dwindled.



Pratap Rai, a senior railway official, said: “We are using every tactic to save lives, but it’s very difficult to cut the metal carriages.”



The prime minister, Narendra Modi, said he was “anguished beyond words” and announced that victims’ families would receive 200,000 rupees (£2,400) as compensation. Injured people can claim 50,000 rupees from government relief funds.



Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) Prayers with those injured in the tragic train accident. I've spoken to @sureshpprabhu, who is personally monitoring the situation closely.

Every day, more than 20 million Indians use the country’s heaving, out of date and poorly maintained railway system, the fourth largest in the world. Accidents on Indian trains are common and claim more than 25,000 lives a year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.



The Ministry of Railways said safety had declined from April to November, with derailments up by 67% compared with the same period last year.

A document sent to the Guardian by Anil Saxena, a railways spokesman, said derailments were often caused by “poor maintenance of infrastructure especially at stations and failure to take appropriate precautionary measures against flash floods, landslides, boulder[s] falling, etc”.



Saxena said the Indian government would launch a “zero-accident mission” for the railways. “We have formed an action plan and a roadmap which we will implement to achieve this,” he said.



The government’s plan, seen by the Guardian, includes upgrading track structure, and introducing long welded rails and track patrols to prevent railway infrastructure from falling into disrepair.



But some estimate that Modi’s $137bn (£111bn) commitment over his five-year term to upgrade India’s railways may not be enough to bring creaking trains and railway infrastructure up to standard.