Officials claim at least 233 people were killed and 900 were injured in a multiple train collision in India’s eastern Odisha state.
According to Odisha’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena, more than 200 ambulances were dispatched to the scene in Balasore district.
One passenger train is believed to have derailed before colliding with another on the adjacent track late Friday.
It is the worst railway crash in India this century. The death toll is anticipated to grow further, according to officials.
The two services involved, according to Indian Railways, were the Coromandel Express and the Howrah Superfast Express.
So far, 233 bodies have been recovered, according to Mr Jena.
He had previously stated that more than 100 extra doctors had been mobilized.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his sadness at the occurrence and expressed sympathy to the bereaved families.
“Rescue operations are underway at the scene of the accident, and all available assistance is being provided to those affected,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Amit Shah, the Home Minister, described the episode as “deeply agonizing.”
According to one male survivor, “10 to 15 people fell on me when the accident happened and everything went haywire.” I was near the bottom of the heap.
“I was hurt in my hand as well as the back of my neck.” “When I got out of the train car, I saw that someone had lost a hand, someone had lost a leg, and someone’s face was distorted,” the survivor told India’s ANI news agency.
The state has declared a day of mourning.
Several cars from the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express are thought to have derailed around 19:00 local time (13:30 GMT), with some ending up on the opposite track.
Another train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast Express, is then thought to have collided with the overturned coaches.
According to Indian officials, a cargo train that was stopped at the scene was also implicated in the tragedy. They did not disclose any other information.
Surviving passengers were spotted rushing in to assist in the rescue of others trapped in the wreckage.
Local bus operators also assisted in transporting injured customers.
According to BBC South Asia regional editor Anbarasan Ethirajan, despite successive governments investing hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade infrastructure, India has one of the world’s largest train networks and accidents are common.
The biggest train accident in India occurred in 1981, when an overcrowded passenger train was blown off the rails and into a river in Bihar state during a cyclone, killing at least 800 people.
