July 10: At least 35 people were killed and over 200 injured when 15 bogies of the Delhi-bound Kalka Mail jumped rail at maximum speed at Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh this afternoon in the worst train accident in a year.

The derailment occurred at 12.20pm when the packed train from Howrah reached near Malwa station, nearly 120km from Lucknow. Several passengers were still trapped inside some of the bogies when dusk fell.

Kalka Mail, the third most important train from Howrah after the Rajdhani and Duronto, was carrying 1,331 passengers from Howrah.

Desperate to get out of the mangled compartments, some of the passengers were seen smashing the windowpanes as they tried to wriggle to safety. Ten compartments, including six air-conditioned coaches, were worst-affected.

While one AC 3-tier coach had turned turtle, another coach was pushed to its top with the impact of the train speeding at about 108kmph. Two other AC coaches banged against each other and stood almost vertically.

Some of the injured passengers were seen coming out of the train in a dazed state with their clothes torn and wounds all over. They also appealed to their family members for help through television channels.

“The train was at its maximum speed. Suddenly we heard a loud bang and we did not know what happened after that. Some villagers pulled me and some others out of the train,” a passenger from Howrah said.

“As many as 15 bogies of the train derailed, out of which 10 are in bad shape. The exact cause of the derailment is being ascertained. The commissioner of railway safety has been directed to probe the incident,” the general manager of North Central Railway, H.C. Joshi, said.

Joshi said the train was travelling at about 108kmph when the accident occurred. “It was almost moving at the speed of 108kmph, which is full speed,” Joshi said.

The chief medical officer of Fatehpur, K.N. Joshi, said 35 of the passengers had died. “About 200 injured are undergoing treatment here.”

Fatehpur superintendent of police Ram Bharose said: “Rescue workers have not been able to enter two of the bogies.”

While some of the bogies had toppled, others were turned into mangled heap of metal. The crowded general compartment behind the engine was the worst-hit. Gas cutters and other equipment were used to cut through the metal in the AC and other coaches to rescue the trapped passengers.

“Several passengers are still inside the bogies and attempts are on to take them out,” an official said in the evening.

A couple of helicopters have been despatched to the site of the incident to airlift the injured, a defence spokesperson said. The army has sent about 120 personnel from adjoining Allahabad and Kanpur to assist in rescue operations. A team of National Disaster Relief Force was also deployed.

Two relief trains — one each from Allahabad and Kanpur — have reached the spot. Two other relief trains were being sent from Howrah and Delhi, minister of state for railways Mukul Roy said, adding families of the dead would be given an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh, while the seriously injured would get Rs 1 lakh and those with minor injuries Rs 25,000.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayavati has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to the kin of those who died, Rs 50,000 to seriously injured and Rs 25,000 for those suffering minor injuries.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who recently resigned as railway minister, was keeping a watch on the situation, Roy said.

Anxious relatives and friends of the passengers, many of them in tears, gathered at Howrah, Kanpur and other stations, including Gaya. A helpline has been opened at Gaya station after the derailment. The helpline number is 0631-2223320.

Deputy station manager and the in-charge of the emergency cell at Gaya, M.A. Khan, told The Telegraph that the relatives of the passengers on board the Kalka Mail could board the special relief train leaving Howrah at 8pm today to reach the accident spot.

Railway officials confirmed nine passengers, including Pushpa (40), Supriya (15), Priti (11), Khushbu Devi (27), Niranjan Kumar (35), Simran Kumari (7), S. Tiwari (44), Z. Alam (21) and C. Mishra (20), had boarded the Kalka Mail from Gaya with confirmed tickets. Around 14 passengers were on the waiting list but it is not confirmed if they boarded the train or not.

Eyewitnesses told reporters that the driver of the train was among those injured in the mishap. The mishap disrupted railway traffic on the Allahabad-Kanpur route, leading to the cancellation of a couple of trains and diversion of several others.

Blast derails train

Four coaches and the engine of Guwahati-Puri Express derailed near Rangia, nearly 50km west of Guwahati, in Kamrup (rural) district of lower Assam around 8.30pm today, following a reported blast. The train had left Guwahati for Puri at 6.45pm. Around 50 persons were injured. Police and railway teams have rushed to the spot.