At least four passengers were reportedly killed and over 20 injured when
the Assam-bound Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express jumped tracks between the Gonda and Mankapur stations in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday afternoon.

The cause of the 2.37pm derailment is yet to be ascertained. Some media reports, however, quoted loco pilot Tribhuvan Singh as saying he had heard a “blast” before the AC bogies just behind the engine went off the tracks.

Sources said the claim of a blast prompted authorities to despatch the anti-terrorist squad of the state police to the accident site — village Pikaura in Gonda district — where they began investigations around 8pm.

“While two coaches turned upside down, another 12 were derailed,” Gonda superintendent of police Vineet Jaiswal told reporters. “We checked the entire train twice to find out whether anybody was still stuck there.”

Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak said: “Four passengers suffered fatal
injuries. About 20 passengers have been admitted to hospital with injuries.”

(A PTI report later said only two people were killed — identifying them as Saroj Kumar Singh, 31, of Araria in Bihar and Rahul, 38, from Chandigarh — while 34 were injured.)

The railway ministry said a high-level inquiry had been ordered apart from a probe by the commission of railway safety, PTI reported.

The train, bound for Dibrugarh with 21 coaches, had left Chandigarh at 11.35pm on Wednesday.

Ram Pal Singh, a passenger headed for Bihar, told reporters: “I felt a massive shock before finding myself on the floor of the compartment. Then I saw all the passengers had fallen. Some of them had suffered injuries. It happened in about 10 seconds.”

Rescue ‘delay’

Eyewitnesses claimed the police arrived about 90 minutes after the derailment, leaving the passengers, aided by local villagers, to help one another.

“Some passengers broke the window glasses and came out of the derailed coaches. Then, some passengers from the other coaches entered (the derailed coaches) through the broken windows and brought out the dead and the injured,” said a Pikaura resident, who claimed he had arranged for a three-wheeler to send some of the injured to a nearby hospital.

“The police arrived after 4pm. The national and state disaster response forces arrived after 6pm.”

PTI quoted a passenger, Sandeep Kumar, as saying: “For a moment the coach was filled with dust and it was all dark. I don’t remember what happened in the next few seconds. I only remember the cries and that a passenger pulled my hand, and helped me get out of the window.”

Jaiswal, the Gonda SP, said 40 medical personnel, including doctors, and 15 ambulances were on the spot.

Kirti Vardhan Singh, Union minister of state for environment and Gonda MP, told reporters at the site around 5.30pm: “We sent some of the passengers to Mankapur railway station on buses. From there a special train took them on their forward journey.”

Pankaj Singh, Nothern Railway CPRO, was quoted as saying that some trains had been diverted while some others must wait till the tracks were cleared and repaired.

Sources said most of the traffic on the Gorakhpur-Lucknow route would be affected because the alternative route via Ayodhya was not equipped to take a heavy load. At least a dozen long-distance trains faced a 12-hour wait.

Several helpline numbers have been set up, including 8957400965 (Gonda), 8957409292 (Lucknow) and 9957555960 (Dibrugarh), PTI reported.

The railways have announced a compensation of ₹10 lakh for the kin of each of the dead, ₹2.5 lakh for the seriously injured, and ₹50,000 for those with minor injuries.

Thursday’s accident comes a month after a goods train rammed the Kanchenjungha Express from behind near Siliguri, killing 10 people.