RailEnquiry

Thirty two sleeping passengers were killed last night as a fire tore through an express train carriage in India.The horrific blaze broke out on a long distance service from New Delhi as passengers slept in the early hours near the town of Nellore, in Andhra, Pradesh. The most likely cause is believed to be an electrical short circuit as investigators got under way.Madhusudan Sarma, a senior administrative officer in Nellore district said: ‘Thirty-two (bodies) have been pulled out from the coach.’One carriage was completely gutted as rescuers struggled with intense temperatures inside the mostly metal structure of the train. Cutting torches were used to open wider access points for the emergency services.

Burned to death: While some passengers were able to jump out the windows, others were not so lucky with medical staff carrying many bodies away from the accident scene in body bags

Fatal fire: The blaze completely destroyed this carriage and is believed to have been caused by an electrical short circuit

Survivors and crowds of onlookers watched in horror as the blackened bodies of victims were lifted out of the destroyed carriage and laid in rows along the railway line.

Family members of the victims wailed and screamed while other dazed survivors sat around quietly with their belongings.

Passenger Shantanu, who gave only one name, told the NDTV news channel: ‘I woke up when people were rushing into our compartment, I was in S-10 which was attached to the S-11 coach that caught fire.

‘There was smoke all around. We tried to open the emergency window, people jumped out of it.’

Nellore chief district official B. Sreedhar said preliminary investigations suggested a short circuit near a toilet had triggered the blaze.

High heat: Rescuers and firefighters struggled with extreme temperatures in the mostly metal carriage

No escape: For many passengers there was no way to escape the blaze in rooms with little ventilation and bars over the windows

Railway Minister Mukul Roy said an investigation was underway as rescue officials finished their nearly 12 hour search for bodies.

He said: ‘Nothing can be excluded and nothing can be said without an investigation.

The train was travelling at 70 mph when it passed through Nellore station, where staff noticed the fire and informed the railway authorities.

Long distance disaster: The express train left from New Delhi on its way to Chennai until the blaze broke out in the carriage near the town of Nellore last night

It was less than 120 miles from the train’s final destination, Chennai, the capital city of Indian state Tamil Nadu.

India's accident-prone rail network is still the main form of long distance travel in the country, despite fierce competition from private airlines.

While new shiny airport infrastructure is springing up across the country, the Indian railways, a legacy of British colonial rule, often appear stuck in a time warp.

Shock: These women were among the crowd that gathered as rescuers searched for bodies for almost 12 hours

Look on in horror: Survivors and crowds of onlookers watched as rescuers searched the train for bodies and investigators looked for the cause

There were two fatal accidents in May alone, including a collision that killed 25 people near the southern city of Bangalore. Four passengers also died after a train derailed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent his condolences over the deaths and has asked the national railways ministry to coordinate the relief effort, his office said.

In March, the then railway minister Dinesh Trivedi unveiled a draft budget for 2012-13 that included a major safety upgrade to be financed by across-the-board fare hikes.

Accident-prone rail: While rail is still India's main form of long distance travel, there was more than 25,000 fatalities on the railways in 2009

But he was forced to withdraw it and resign after a rebellion from his own populist party, the Trinamool Congress, which objected to increasing ticket prices for the poorest travellers.

India's worst rail accident was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.

The National Crime Records Bureau, which gathers the causes of fatalities across India, says 25,705 people in total died on the railways in 2009.

The data is not broken down, but a vast majority of these deaths are people falling from the open doors of carriages or being hit on the tracks, which are mostly unsecured.