Dozens killed in Indian train crash

At least 69 people are thought to have died after a train derailed in Uttar Pradesh.

Travel Insurance News - 11/07/2011

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More than 69 people are reported dead and more than 250 have been injured in the derailment of a train in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Some 12 coaches on the Kalka Mail passenger service came off the rails close to the town of Fatehpur.

Rescue workers, accompanied by local people, have been working all night in a bid to free passengers still trapped in the badly mangled carriages. The train had been heading to the Indian capital, Delhi, from Howrah, a city near Calcutta.

The train was reported to have been moving at more than 60mph at the time of the accident. The bodies of two people from Sweden were found amongst the dead recovered from the crash site.

Another Swede was report to be among the dozens of people being treated at a hospital in the nearby town of Kanpur. Indian PM Manmohan Singh expressed is great concern about the accident, the second to hit Uttar Pradesh in the last week.

The Prime Minister has ordered railway authorities to provide all available resources to the relief operation. In the accident, some of the train’s coaches ended up on top of others and some ended up badly crushed, making it extremely difficult for rescue crews to reach victims and retrieve them.

Specialist medical teams and large numbers of engineers were sent to the site. Special cranes and cutting equipment is being used in order to get victims out of the wreckage.

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