India Train Derails, Killing at Least 96 People

NEW DELHI—At least 96 people were killed and scores of others injured Sunday after a passenger train veered off the tracks in northern India, a spokesman for the railways said.

The 14 derailed coaches crashed into one another, trapping hundreds of passengers inside, according to Vijay Kumar, a spokesman for the North Central Railway.

Television channels showed rescue workers pulling dead bodies from the coaches' mangled remains. It wasn't immediately clear what led to the derailment, but an inquiry is under way, Mr. Kumar said.

The Indore-Patna Express was about halfway through its 1,359-kilometer (844 mile) journey from the central city of Indore to the eastern city of Patna when the coaches swiveled off track. The accident took place on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Kanpur about 3 a.m. Sunday local time.

"Anguished beyond words on the loss of lives due to the derailing," Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted from his verified account, adding that he had spoken to India's Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, "who is personally monitoring the situation."

Mr. Prabhu said India's National Disaster Response Force was involved in rescue and relief operations. Authorities say the death toll is expected to rise.

Train accidents are common in India. More than 25,000 people died because of train-related accidents in India in 2014, the latest year for which government records are available. Most of those deaths were from trains hitting people and vehicles on the country's vast and overburdened railway network.

The government has struggled for decades to modernize the railways to keep up with the growth in the country's population and economy.

A government audit of the 442 rail-construction projects active as of March 2014 found that delays and poor planning had caused costs to balloon 69%, or $16 billion, over original estimates. Seventy-five of these projects had been in the works for more than 15 years, and three for more than 30 years. Work on 22 projects hadn't started.

Last year, at least 24 people were killed after two passenger trains derailed over a bridge in central India while crossing a track that was flooded by heavy monsoon rains.

Write to Preetika Rana at preetika.rana@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 20, 2016 20:45 ET (01:45 GMT)

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