Train collision in Lahore, 3 dead

LAHORE: Three people died while 16 sustained injuries when two passenger trains collided at the Badami Bagh Railway crossing in Lahore on Tuesday.

According to railway officials, the Khyber Mail crashed into the Babu Train standing at the Badami Bagh railway crossing.

"Passenger train Khyber mail, which was coming from Karachi, hit another Lahore-bound train, which had stopped at a local station in Lahore," railway police official Munir Chishti told AFP.

Three bogies were derailed due to the collision, leaving three dead and others injured.

He said the second train had made an unscheduled stop at the station after hitting a young boy. Five of the wounded are in a critical condition, he added.

"We have already ordered an inquiry into the incident", Chishti said.

Express 24/7 correspondent Rabia Mehmood reported that a man was trying to commit suicide on the train tracks, which is why the Babu Train had to stop. The Khyber Mail that was following behind it subsequently collided into it.

The injured person has been shifted to Nawaz Sharif Hospital and Mayo Hospital.

Pakistan suffered its worst train disaster in more than a decade in 2005 when three trains ploughed into each other in Sindh province, killing around 150 people. More than 350 people were killed in a 1990 train crash.Train travel is popular among Pakistan's poorer classes, but the railways have been hit by a severe funding shortfall and a lack of barriers at most level crossings are a frequent cause of small accidents.