Blast, Fire on India Train Kills 80 People, Injures 65

A leaking gas cylinder exploded and burned in a passenger train in eastern India today, killing at least 80 people and injuring 65 others, officials said.

Local reporters said at least 100 people died in the fire, which raged through two train cars before firefighters extinguished it.

The train was passing through Patna, 500 miles southeast of New Delhi, when the fire broke out at 9:30 a.m.

The blaze swept through two cars of the 16-car train before firefighters could extinguish it, said District Magistrate S. K. Sharma, top civil administrator in the Patna region.

United News of India quoting local officials said at least 80 people died.

“After smelling something like gas, I felt suffocated and jumped out of the train,” said Ram Narain Prasad, who sustained a head injury in his leap from the second car.

“We were playing cards. Suddenly a strong smell of gas engulfed the whole compartment and in a trice, a column of thick smoke and leaping flames enveloped the ill-fated bogey (car),” Suresh Singh, a railway employee, told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Police said that, based on survivors’ reports, investigators believe the inferno was sparked by the explosion of a natural gas cylinder used for welding torches that was brought aboard one of the cars. The shattered, blackened cylinder was recovered from the charred remains of one of the cars.

The nozzle of the cylinder, apparently came off, releasing the pressurized contents in a tremendous gush, police said.

Investigators speculated that the leaking gas was then ignited by a cigarette and the cylinder exploded in an intense fireball. Flames were spread rapidly back to the second coach by wind created by the forward movement of the train, they said.