AN EXPRESS train ploughed into a crowd of Hindu pilgrims in eastern India on Monday (August 19), killing 37 and triggering a riot that left one of the drivers dead and carriages ablaze, officials said.
The pilgrims were crossing the tracks at a station in Bihar when the high-speed passenger train struck them, a senior police officer said.
“The death toll is now 37,” SK Bharadwaj, an additional director general of police, told reporters. Nine women and four children were among the dead.
“Dozens of people have been injured. We do not have exact figures of those injured because they were taken away to various hospitals,” he said.
Angry crowds went on the rampage, converging on the Rajya Rani Express which stopped after the accident. They attacked its drivers and left one dead with another seriously injured, Bharadwaj said.
“One of the drivers of the train who was beaten up by the agitators has died. The other driver is struggling for his life in the hospital,” he said.
The crowd also set carriages on fire and ransacked the station in the small town of Dhamara Ghat, 248 km from Patna, local railway chief Arun Malik told reporters.
“Six carriages have been set on fire and the station has been ransacked by the mob. Our staff have fled the station fearing attacks,” Malik said.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh “expressed deep sorrow and shock at the loss of lives” and appealed for calm, a statement from his office said.
Suman Kumar Jha, a college student on board the express when it rammed into the pilgrims, said he was “numbed” to see “so much blood all around”.
“I got down from the train after the accident. I was shocked to see severed heads and limbs scattered on the tracks. It was really very disturbing,” he told local TV channels.
Bodies were placed in a line alongside the tracks, their faces covered by articles of clothing, as passengers gathered nearby. Fire and smoke was also seen on TV billowing from carriages and a window was smashed.
A senior railways official said it appeared the pilgrims were unaware of the oncoming express train on the middle of the station’s three tracks.
“Two trains were already stationary on other tracks and the Rajya Rani Express was given permission to pass,” Arunendra Kumar, chairman of the national railway board, told reporters in New Delhi.
“The accident occurred because some people left the platform of the station and came on the tracks,” Kumar said.
Large numbers of pilgrims had been gathering at a nearby temple to offer prayers. Some are Kanwarias who are devoted to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction.
