LUCKNOW – At least 142 people were killed and more than 150 injured when a train derailed in north India on Sunday, police said.
“The death toll has increased and stands at 60 now,” said Zaqi Ahmed, inspector general of police for Kanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh. “Over 150 others are injured.”
Fourteen carriages of the train derailed, railway officials said.
Two senior police officials in Kanpur said their teams have pulled out at least 90 bodies from the badly damaged carriages.
“Still many more passengers are trapped,” a senior railway official in New Delhi said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the express train travelling between the cities of Patna and Indore came off the tracks near Kanpur city.
Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said the government would immediately investigate the causes of the derailment and promised accountability with the “strictest possible action”.
The nation suffers frequent train derailments, sometimes with tragic consequences, including another train accident in Uttar Pradesh in March last year that killed 39 people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to express his condolences.
