At least four people have died and 60 have been injured when a passenger train derailed in the state of Bihar, in northern India. “So far we have recovered four bodies from the accident site,” said Anshul Agarwal, the district magistrate of Buxar where the accident took place. In addition, 60 people have been injured in the accident, Agarwal explained.

It all happened when several carriages of the North East Express, which connects New Delhi with the northeastern city of Guwahati, derailed on Wednesday night, explained the deputy chief minister of the state of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, on the social network Twitter).

“After speaking with the Disaster Management Department, Health Department and district officials of Buxar and Bhojpur, I reached the spot as soon as possible to expedite relief and rescue work and take appropriate medical measures for the injured.” , Yadav has pointed out.

Dozens of people have gathered next to the derailed cars to search for survivors of the accident and help the injured passengers, by the light of flashlights and their mobile phones, the Delhi television station NDTV showed.

The event follows the derailment of a train last June in the eastern state of Odisha, which left 275 dead and more than a thousand injured, underscoring India’s shortcomings in safety, with derailments as the cause of 70 % of claims.

The Asian country has the fourth largest railway network in the world by length, and between April 2017 and March 2021 it recorded 2,017 incidents with derailment as the most common cause, according to a recent report by the Auditor General (CAG).

The immense extension of the Indian railway network, 68,000 kilometers long, means that most of its sections are completely open, which encourages trains to collide with people crossing the track without being attentive or with animals.