Train Crash and Derailment Kill at Least 24, Hurt 56 in West India

A passenger train slammed into a stationary cargo train in western India today, killing at least 24 people and injuring 56, said Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat state.

One coach climbed atop another and at least five others jumped the tracks and fell sideways in the accident at the Samlaya village station, about 20 miles west of the city of Vadodara in western Gujarat state.

The passenger train was coming from the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi.

Villagers from Samlaya and other nearby communities were the first to reach the train. They pulled people out of the jumbled coaches.

Firefighters and soldiers used a hydraulic ladder to reach the top of the coach that had climbed over another and cut through the top with blowtorches to rescue people trapped inside.

It was not clear what caused the accident.

“It could be a signal failure or it could be human failure,” said Shailendra Kumar, a spokesman for India’s Western Railway.

“We fear around 80 people are still trapped in one of the coaches,” said Narayan Singh Rathore, the state railway minister.

Railway officials said all the train coaches were full and that at least 432 passengers were aboard.

India’s sprawling railway network, one of the largest in the world, has poor safety standards and is plagued by accidents.