A major rescue operation was underway on Saturday after multiple trains derailed in in eastern India's Odisha state.Over 280 people were killed and over 800 injured in the accident, which took place late on Friday, officials said.
The death toll rose steadily throughout the night.
As dawn approached on Saturday, the chief secretary of Odisha, Pradeep Jena, said that at least 244 people were dead. Fire department officials later said at least 288 bodies have been recovered so far.
"By 10 pm (on Friday) we were able to rescue the survivors. After that it was about picking up dead bodies," Sudhanshu Sarangi, director of Odisha's fire department, told The Associated Press.
"This is very, very tragic. I have never seen anything like this in my career," he said.Sarangi said that rescuers were still cutting through the wrecked rail cars to find people who may still be alive and trapped.
Rescue efforts in full swing
The accident happened in Balasore, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Odisha's state capital, Bhubaneswar.
An extensive search-and-rescue operation has been underway since, involving hundreds of first-responders from the fire department and the police force who are using sniffer dogs. National Disaster Response Force teams were also at the site.
"Our top priority now is rescuing (the passengers) and providing health support to the injured," Jena said.
Rescue teams and emergency personnel were working to rescue survivors and transport the injured to hospitals, he added.
Odisha state officials declared a day of mourning on Saturday as a mark of respect to the victims.
Meanwhile, hundreds of young people lined up outside a government hospital in the small city of Soro to donate blood.
What do we know so far?
The crash happened around 7:20 p.m. local time (13:50 GMT) near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore.
There are some conflicting accounts on which train came to derail first, but the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency cited officials as saying that three trains were involved in the crash.
PTI reported that the first to derail was the Bengaluru to Howrah train, which is known as the Howrah Superfast Express. Some of its carriages fell onto adjacent tracks.
Those derailed coaches collided with the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai.As it derailed, the Coromandel Express then hit a freight train, officials told PTI.
Television images showed rescue teams trying to reach the survivors trapped inside mangled carriages, with scores of bodies laid out under white sheets beside the tracks.The Ministry of Railways said it has initiated an investigation into the incident.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, India's railway minister, announced compensation for victims and their families of the accident in a post on Twitter. The government will pay 10 lakh rupees (€ 11,300; $12,100) to the families of the deceased, 2 lakh rupees (€ 2,260; $2,400) for those grievously injured and 50,000 rupees (€ 566; $607) for those with minor injuries, he said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that rescue operations were underway at the site and "all possible assistance" is being given to those affected. "May the injured recover soon," he said.
Survivors describe horror of crash
Locals from Balasore and neighboring residences rushed to the site to evacuate people after hearing the train coaches collide with each other, according to reports.
"The local people really went out on a limb to help us. They not only helped in pulling out people, but retrieved our luggage and got us water," Rupam Banerjee, a survivor of the tragedy told PTI.
Another survivor Vandana Kaleda said that inside the train during the derailment people were "falling on each other" as her coach shook violently and veered off the tracks.
"As I stepped out of the washroom, suddenly the train tilted. I lost my balance. [...] Everything went topsy turvy. People started falling on each other and I was shocked and could not understand what happened. My mind stopped working," she said.
A surviving passenger who did not give his name said he saw other passengers with broken limbs and disfigured faces.
India no stranger to rail accidents
Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, accidents occur every year on India's railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.
In 2018, a commuter train drove through a crowd gathered on the tracks for a festival in northern India's Amritsar city, killing at least 59 people and injuring dozens of others.
In 2017, over 40 people were killed after several coaches of a passenger train went off the rails in southern Andhra Pradesh state.
Most train accidents in the country are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.(AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)
