By Deutsche Welle
29 Oct 2023, 18:35 PM EDT
At least nine people died and 29 others were injured this Sunday when two passenger trains collided in southern India. The accident occurred in the Vizianagaram district, in the state of Andra Pradesh, where relief teams have traveled to treat the victims. According to the first information, a train arriving at its destination hit another that was parked.
At the moment, the causes that caused this accident, in which at least three carriages were affected, are unknown. indicated railway authorities. Images broadcast by Indian media show several derailed cars and people crowded around them, while relief teams, with the help of neighbors, ensure the rescue and care of the victims.
The head of the Government of Andra Pradesh, Jagan Reddy, expressed on X (Twitter) his deep shock at the event and ordered that attention be guaranteed in the area. For his part, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and assured that he had spoken with the Minister of Railways to take stock of the event.
— Monu Manesar (parody) (@wtfbc_) October 29, 2023
Numerous accidents
The Ministry of Railways enabled an emergency line to help locate relatives of victims, while the Andhra Pradesh authorities ordered the rapid dispatch of as many ambulances as possible to the scene of the accident. The event takes place after the derailment of a train last June in the eastern state of Odisha, which left more than 280 dead and more than a thousand injured, highlighting the country’s shortcomings in railway safety.
The Asian country has the fourth largest railway network in the world by length, with more than 64,000 kilometers of railway tracks, and between April 2017 and March 2021 it registered 2017 incidents with derailment as the cause in 70 per cent of cases, according to a recent Auditor General (CAG) report.
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