At the very least 12 folks had been killed and 11 folks injured in India on Wednesday night after they stepped off a practice and had been hit by one other one whereas on the tracks, the native authorities mentioned.
The passengers had disembarked after rumors of a hearth on their practice unfold panic amongst these onboard, the authorities mentioned.
The accident occurred round 5 p.m. in Maharashtra State, about 170 miles northeast of Mumbai, mentioned Ashok Pawar, a police inspector on the Pachora police station. The passengers had been aboard the Pushpak Specific, a practice touring from Lucknow, in northern India, to Mumbai within the west, when phrase unfold onboard of a hearth, he mentioned.
Panic ensued, and folks started to depart the practice when it will definitely got here to a cease, Mr. Pawar mentioned. They had been hit by one other practice, the Karnataka Specific, passing by on an adjoining observe.
It was unclear what number of passengers had been on the Pushpak Specific. Mr. Pawar mentioned the practice had been full of folks, lots of them migrant employees touring for work. The accident, he mentioned, left victims with extreme accidents.
The authorities mentioned that they had been wanting into the episode.
“We are going to examine precisely what was the rationale, whether or not there was an precise hearth or whether or not it’s only a rumor unfold by any mischievous particular person,” Maheswar Reddy, the superintendent of police in Jalgaon District, the place the accident occurred, said to reporters.
Mr. Pawar, the inspector, mentioned seven individuals who had died had been from Nepal and 4 had been from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the place Lucknow is. One physique remained unidentified, and households of the victims had been now in Jalgaon, he mentioned.
Devendra Fadnavis, the highest authorities official in Maharashtra, mentioned late Wednesday that eight ambulances had been dispatched to the scene. The state authorities would supply monetary help to the households of the victims, he said on social media, and would cowl bills for individuals who had been injured.
The accident raised extra questions across the security of practice journey in India, the place thousands and thousands of individuals depend upon an unlimited however accident-prone railway community for transport, particularly in rural areas.