As many as 280 people have been killed and over 900 have been injured in a horrific train derailment that occurred on Friday evening at around 7 pm in Odisha's Balasore.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared one-day state mourning on Saturday in view of the horrific train crash.
As many as 280 people were killed and more than 900 injured when three trains collided one after another in a horrific sequence in Odisha's Balasore district on Friday (Photo: India Today)
Over 280 people were killed and 900 people were injured in an accident involving three trains in Odisha's Balasore, DGP Fire service Sudhanshu Sarangi told India Today.
The exact sequence of events that led to the accident isn’t clear. What we know so far is that two passenger trains — Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express— and a goods train were involved in an accident that was triggered by a derailment.
Many passengers were still feared trapped in the overturned coaches of Yashwantpur express and Army officials are working to pull the bodies out.
"Around 900 injured passengers are being treated at several hospitals in Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Cuttack districts," Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said.
"The identified bodies are either being handed over to their relatives or transported to their respective destinations after autopsy. Statutory procedure will be followed for the unidentified ones," he added.
The train crash, one of the deadliest in India in recent times, happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 pm on Friday.