Bisola David
With a death toll of over 200 people from a railway crash in eastern India, rescuers are battling against time to find survivors among the rubble.
According to Aljazeera, the state’s senior administrative officer, Pradeep Jena, stated that the accident in the eastern state of Odisha’s Balasore district injured almost 900 persons.
In one of the country’s bloodiest railway accidents in twenty years, hundreds of people were stranded overnight inside more than a dozen wrecked rail cars.
The accident occurred on Friday night, approximately 220 kilometers (137 miles) southwest of Kolkata, and it resulted in chaotic scenes as rescuers clambered atop the derailed trains to use cutting tools to open doors and windows to help survivors.
The director of the fire department in Odisha, Sudhanshu Sarangi, stated that while it was possible for individuals to be trapped below, it was improbable that they would still be alive.
“We were able to rescue the surviving by 10 o’clock (on Friday). Following that, picking up dead bodies was the focus, he claimed. “This is terrible in the extreme. In my profession, I have never witnessed anything like this.
According to him, a passenger train traveling in the opposite way struck the debris and up to three of its coaches derailed as a result.
As the state’s chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, visited the district to visit the injured passengers, Saturday was proclaimed a day of mourning in Odisha.
