Rescue work in progress after the collision near Sahebganj early on Wednesday morning. (PTI)

Jan. 11: Five passengers were killed and at least 50 injured when a goods train with a faulty engine rolled backwards, slammed into the Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail and threw a sleeper coach off the tracks at Wednesday dawn in Jharkhand.

The Brahmaputra Mail, coming from Dibrugarh in Assam, was approaching a station and had considerably slowed down — a factor that may have helped avert a bigger disaster.

Four of the dead had been identified as Assam Rifles jawan Bijoy Roy (40), Girija Devi (55), Dinesh Mahaldar (50) and Narendra (38). The fifth deceased is an unidentified youth aged around 25 years. The injured include a three-year-old girl.

The accident site is located 25km from Sahebganj in Jharkhand but the railway section falls in Eastern Railway’s Malda division. The section has a single line where stations have loop lines to allow two trains to pass simultaneously.

“The goods train was standing on the main line at Karanpurato station since around 12.30am today. As the Brahmaputra Mail was passing through the loop line at 5.50 am, the goods train engine started rolling out all of a sudden,” a senior railway official said.

The guard van at the rear of the goods train hit the S9 sleeper coach of the mail train that was heading towards Karanpurato station. Station manager Raj Kumar Das said he heard a loud thud when the down Brahmaputra Mail (14055) was still 500 metres away.

Eight coaches of the 22-bogey Brahmaputra Mail had crossed an intersection when the goods train with 42 wagons started rolling back, possibly because of vibration in the tracks.

Malda division assistant commercial manager Jagannath Prasad said: “Prima facie, it appears that the goods train rolled back because of vibration created by the movement of the mail train. However, a conclusion can be drawn only after an inquiry”. Six staff members were suspended.