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The train crash, the fourth deadliest in India according to available records, happened near the Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 pm on Friday, prompting the Railway Ministry to order a probe. The inquiry into the train accident will be led by A M Chowdhary, Commissioner Railway Safety, South East Circle, the Indian Railways said in a statement. The Commissioner Railway Safety comes under the Ministry of Civil Aviation. While it is not clear what caused the crash, sources indicate a possible signalling failure.
The 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express derailed at Bahanaga Bazar between Balasore and Soro stations at around 7 pm, according to South Eastern Railway officials. Almost immediately after this the 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, derailed at the same site. Some coaches of the Shalimar-Chennai Express fell on top of a stationary goods train in an adjacent railway track.
Railway Spokesperson Amitabh Sharma told PTI Video that the Coromandel Express derailed first, and its 10-12 coaches fell on the line on which the Bengaluru-Howrah Express was travelling, forcing it to jump off the tracks. Gas cutters were used to extricate the bodies from under the derailed coaches. From a vantage point high above, the accident site looked like as if a powerful whirlwind had thrown train coaches on top of each other. Closer to the ground, mangled steel and bloodied and disfigured bodies lay enmeshed with each other creating a grotesque sight.
More than 300 NDRF rescuers armed with big metal cutters, canine squads and other heavy-lift equipment are working at the train accident site in Odisha and are expected to wind up the search operation by Saturday evening, Director General of the force Atul Karwal said here on Saturday. The federal contingency force has taken out 44 victims alive and 71 bodies from the mangled railway coaches in Balasore district since its first team reached the accident site around 8:30 pm on Friday.
Railway tracks were almost destroyed at the spot as mangled coaches lay strewn all over, with some having mounted on another, while a few coaches turned turtle due to the impact. "Some of the scenes at the site were too gory to describe," said a passenger. Locals said they heard consecutive loud sounds, following which they rushed to the spot and found the derailed coaches, which were nothing but "a mangled heap of steel".
A Railways official shows a list of passengers at a special help desk at Central Railway Station following an accident involving three trains in Odisha's Balasore, in Chennai. The railways has initiated a high-level probe into the train crash in Odisha, which will be headed by the commissioner of railway safety, South Eastern Circle, officials said on Saturday. The national transporter has also said anti-train collision system "Kavach" was not available on the route.
Health workers at a help desk at Howrah railway station following an accident involving three trains in Odisha's Balasore, in Howrah. The Balasore district hospital and Soro hospital where the injured have been rushed after three trains derailed one on top of another in a horrific accident, killing at least 261 people and injuring over 650 in Odisha, looked like war zone with the injured lying on stretchers in the corridor and rooms bursting at its seams with extra beds propped up to take care of the unending stream of injured passengers.
Pijush Poddar, a resident of Berhampore in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, was travelling to Tamil Nadu in the Coromandel Express to join work there when the accident happened. "We were jolted and suddenly saw the train bogie turn on one side. Many of us were thrown out of the compartment by the momentum of the derailment. When we managed to crawl out, we found bodies lying all around," he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw visited crash site in Balasore.
Banerjee said the horrific train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district was the “biggest of the century” and a proper investigation was needed to get to the truth. Banerjee, who was the railway minister twice, flew to the accident site on Saturday afternoon to take stock of rescue operations. She spoke to Ashwini Vaishnaw and other senior officials who were already present there. Naveen Patnaik declared one-day state mourning in view of the accident.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on Saturday to review the situation in relation to the Odisha train accident, officials said. Home Minister Amit Shah and senior government officials attended the meeting as Modi took stock of the situation. The prime minister is also scheduled to visit the site of the accident and also the Cuttack hospital where the injured are being treated.
