Train Collision Kills 37 in Northern India

Two trains collided head-on Tuesday in northern India, killing at least 37 people in a crash that the railways minister called “brutal murder.” Officials blamed the accident on a communication problem.

Forty people were injured, and the death toll may rise, railway officials said.

A “communications snag” between two stationmasters apparently resulted in an express train and a local train heading toward each other on the same track, said Dharam Singh, the top railway official in the area.

“I don’t consider it an accident. It is nothing less than a brutal murder,” federal Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav told reporters at the site.

The two stationmasters, as well as an engineer who allegedly did not prevent the crash, were fired and would face criminal charges, Yadav said.

Villagers on tractors were among the first to arrive at the scene. They helped set up soup kitchens and first aid centers for survivors. Soldiers rushed from a nearby base, pulling out bodies and survivors as welders cut into the metal.

The Press Trust of India news agency quoted Neeta Mohindroo, a passenger on the express train, as saying, “I felt a violent jerk, and the next moment I realized everybody was jumping out to save their lives. As we came out, we saw the passenger train engine on fire and twisted pieces of iron all around.”

The drivers of both trains died, the agency reported.

The express train was traveling from Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, to Ahmadabad in western Gujarat state. The local train was traveling between the cities of Jalandhar and Pathankot. Most of those killed were passengers on the local train. The accident occurred outside Khanpur, northwest of New Delhi.