At least 70 people died and another 350 were injured this Friday in eastern India after a passenger train derailed and several wagons that overturned were hit by another train traveling in the opposite direction, according to the Indian agency PTI, which has cited official sources.

The accident took place around 7:20 p.m. local time (1:50 p.m. GMT), near the station in the town of Bahanaga, in the state of Odisha, where rescue teams continue to work quickly to help the victims. possible injuries that remain in the place.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Railways, the accident occurred when a first passenger train covering the route between the cities of Shalimar, in Kolkata, and Chennai, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, derailed, after which a second train traveling from Yeswanthpur in Bangalore to Howrah in Calcutta, collided with him.

A third freight train was also involved in the crash, Odisha Secretary General Pradeep Kumar told Indian television NDTV. Images of the accident show fifteen wagons overturned on the tracks, with the rescue teams trying to cut the wagons to be able to enter them and help the people who They are still trapped inside.

Three teams from the National Disaster Response Force, four units from the Odisha Rapid Disaster Action Force, more than 15 fire teams, 30 doctors, 200 police officers and 60 ambulances They have been mobilized to the site, Kumar added, saying that rescue operations will continue for the next few hours despite the darkness.

The Government announces financial compensation

The head of the Government of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, is in the offices of the regional disaster management authority to direct the operations and has announced that this Saturday he will go to the scene of the accident. The Ministry of Railways has canceled more than a dozen trains that covered the damaged section and has diverted the route of several, while the minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has advanced compensation of more than $12,000 for the deceased, about $2,500 for those seriously injured and $606 for those with minor injuries.

This It is the worst rail accident in India since 2016, when the derailment of a train in the north of the country resulted in at least 138 deaths and 200 injuries, in one of the worst accidents in recent years in this country. Train accidents are common in India.

According to the latest report from India’s National Crime Recording Bureau (NCRB), there were 13,018 accidents in 2020, resulting in deaths 11,986 people and another 11,127 were injured, with collisions being the cause of 70% of the accidents. The Indian railway network is, with a length of 68,000 kilometers, the fourth in length in the world, behind the United States, Russia and China, it has some 21,650 trains and 7,349 stations throughout the country, and transports some 23 million passengers daily. passengers.