What do we know about the train crash that killed nearly 300 people?

Overturned wagons, hundreds of rescue workers, corpses covered in white blankets on the tracks… The situation was still chaotic on Saturday, June 3, after a train accident in eastern India on Friday evening that killed at least 288 people and injured 850 others. Odisha State Fire Services informed on Saturday morning that the toll was still tentative as several passengers were trapped inside the wagons’ metal carcasses. Here’s what we know about the accident, one of the worst in the nation’s rail history.

Three trains were involved in the accident

According to Indian Railways director Amitabh Sharma, two passenger trains “actively involved in an accident”It happened near the city of Balasore in eastern India.

According to a research report published on Saturday by India TodayAccident a “Signal Failure” occurred in line. A passenger train, the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, entered the wrong train circuit instead of the originally scheduled route to Chennai in southern India.

A goods vehicle was parked at the spot and collided with the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express. The latter wagons found themselves on the opposite track. It was here that the Howrah Superfast Express, which was heading from Yeswantpur to Howrah, rammed into these coaches, adding to the mishap.

“It is very difficult to estimate the number of casualties or injuries on the ground at this time.”Amitabh Sharma said many passengers were trapped in the wreckage.

Army has been mobilized for relief

Very quickly, after the collision, help rushed to the scene of tragedy. According to AFP journalists, hundreds of rescuers were on hand to extract the lifeless bodies of people inside the corpses. A steady stream of ambulances dropped the injured overnight at the Patrak District Hospital, where bloodied and shocked survivors are being treated in overcrowded conditions.

Indian Transport Minister Ashwini Vaishnav visited the scene on Saturday morning and announced that the army would be mobilized to search for survivors and help victims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also visit the nearest hospital to meet the survivors of the accident. “My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly.”He wrote to himself on Twitter “victim” By this disaster. A national day of mourning has been declared.

This is one of the deadliest train accidents

India has experienced several serious train accidents in the past. On June 6, 1981, in the eastern state of Bihar, seven wagons of a train crossing a bridge fell into the Bagmati River, killing between 800 and 1,000 people. In November 2016, 146 people were killed and around 180 injured when the Patna-Indore express train, carrying 2,000 passengers, derailed in a rural part of Uttar Pradesh state in the north of the country. Since the turn of the century, 13 train accidents, including at least three attacks, have each caused more than 50 deaths.