RailEnquiry

At least 18 people were charred to death and more than 35 others sustained injuries in a major rail mishap in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh just before dawn Tuesday, a senior railway police official said.

At least 18 persons were killed and dozens of others seriously injured when a passenger train crashed into a goods train in the southeast Indian state of Andhra Pradesh early Tuesday.  "The mishap happened when a passenger train, the Hampi Express, rammed into a stationary freight train near Penukonda station in the state's Anantapur district at 3:15 a.m. (local time). The train was going from the state's Hubli district to the neighboring state of Karnataka's capital Bangalore when the collision took place," the official said, on condition of anonymity.

Such great was the impact of the collision that two coaches of the passenger train caught fire. As a result, 18 passengers were charred to death and those injured have been admitted to a local hospital where the condition of some are said to be serious, the official said, adding that preliminary probe has revealed that the driver of the passenger train may have overshot the signal.

The death toll is likely to go up later in the day as several passengers are still feared trapped inside three damaged coaches of Hampi Express, two of which derailed and caught fire after the collision, say railway officials.

"The exact number of trapped people is not known yet, but efforts are on in full force to bring them out safely. Doctors are working hard to give relief to all the injured," Anil Saxena, Public Relations Officer of Indian Railways told the media in the national capital.

He added: "The engine and the first three coaches of the Hampi Express have been badly affected due to the collision. The first bogey is guard-cum-luggage-cum passenger coach, the second and third are general compartments. While the first and the third coaches have derailed, the second remained on the tracks."

Local TV channels reported that the fire has been doused and beamed footage of rescuers using gas cutters to cut the windows of the three coaches to bring out those trapped inside.

Meanwhile, Indian Railways Minister Mukul Roy is on his way to the accident site and has ordered an inquiry into the collision. The Railway Ministry has also announced a compensation of 5 lakh rupees (10,000 U.S. dollars) each to the next of kin of those killed, 1 lakh rupees for those critically injured and 50,000 rupess for those who sustained simple injuries.

The train accident in Andhra Pradesh has caused delays to several Bangalore-bound trains traveling through the state. "The train services in the state are being restored," Saxena said.

India Railways operates to every corner of the country, running 9,000 passenger trains a day, ferrying over 18 million people. Train mishaps are common in India and have claimed the lives of 1, 220 people over the past five years, the Indian Railways Ministry has recently revealed.

This is India's first major railway mishap this year.

The last major train accident happened in July last year when an express train travelling from the eastern city of Kolkata to the national capital derailed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, in which nearly 70 people lost their lives.

India's worst rail disaster took place in 1981 when a passenger train fell into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing over 800 passengers.