120 dead as train leaps from Kanpur tracks

Up to 14 carriages wrecked, survivors look for loved ones

PUKHRAYAN: Emergency workers raced to find any more survivors in the mangled wreckage of an Indian train that derailed on Sunday, killing at least 120 people, in the worst disaster to hit the country's ageing rail network in recent years.

Shocked passengers recalled being jolted out of their early morning slumber by a violent thud as 14 carriages leapt from the tracks in a remote area near Kanpur city in Uttar Pradesh state.



Survivors also told of their desperate search for loved-ones on the train, which was carrying at least one wedding party with the marriage season in India in full swing.

"My 12-year-old daughter is missing, I have been looking for her for hours," a survivor told AFP at the accident site, breaking into uncontrollable sobs.

"My wife has received serious head injuries and I have lost all my belongings. I am feeling so helpless, my whole world has turned upside down."

Hundreds of army and police have been deployed at the scene, where rescue workers used metal cutters to slice through severely mangled coaches to try to get to survivors.

Disaster response teams also set up special lights to ensure rescue work was not hampered in the night.

"We have been able to pull out 24 people so far, out of which five were found to be alive," said Brigadier A Chhibbar, who is leading the army's rescue operations.



"We will carry on day and night, till there is any inkling of even a single person being pulled alive."

Police said 120 people had been killed and at least 200 others were undergoing treatment in nearby hospitals, which were placed on high alert after the early morning disaster.

"The death toll has reached 120. At least 200 others are injured," Zaki Ahmad, police inspector general of Kanpur zone, said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2016.