At least 15 people died and more than twenty were injured after a Collision between a passenger train and a goods train this Monday in northeastern India, apparently caused by human error, official sources confirmed to the EFE agency.
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The accident took place on the morning of this Monday, June 17, 2024, in a Daarjeling district station of West Bengal, a very popular tourist destination in the northeast of the country, especially during the summer.
“So far the bodies of 15 people inside the cars“, among them the driver of one of the trains, the deputy superintendent of police of the Darjeeling district, Abhishek Roy, told EFE.
Nearly 60 people were taken to hospitals to receive medical attention, most of them were discharged. However, between 20 and 25 people remain hospitalized, according to the source.
Rescue operations are still underway, so The authorities do not rule out that there are people trapped in some of the affected cars.
For now The causes of the accident are unknown.
Because the driver of the freight train is among the dead“We do not have a precise way of knowing exactly what happened (…) apparently there was an omission of the signals, but we will know more after the investigation,” Railway Board Director Jaya Varma Sinha said at a press conference. .
Also, “the assistant conductor of the goods train and the guard of the Kanchenjunga Express passenger train were killed in the incident,” he added.
The express train He was traveling from the Indian state of Assam to the city of Calcutta, in the state of West Bengal, according to local media.
The section where the accident occurred It is a route with a lot of traffic that operates with an automatic signal for several parallel lines, Therefore, it frequently jams several trains at the same time, according to witnesses and local media.
Images broadcast by television channels They show one of the cars in an upright position, partially in the air, and other freight cars and containers destroyed or derailed after the crash.
“The train accident in West Bengal is sad. My condolences to those who lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured recover as soon as possible. I have spoken with officials and taken stock of the situation. Rescue operations are being carried out to help those affected,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a message on X.
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).
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Source: https://www.noticiascaracol.com/mundo/choque-de-trenes-deja-al-menos-15-muertos-y-mas-de-20-heridos-en-india-cb20
