Odisha train crash: Survivors recount horror; restoration work begins as PM lauds locals’ courage, compassion
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India train tragedy: The triple-train crash in eastern India's Odisha state has left 275 dead and nearly a thousand persons wounded.
The death toll from the triple-train crash in Balasore district of eastern India's Odisha state was revised to 275, with the close relatives of the victims scrambling through a local school-turned-temporary mortuary to identify the bodies. So far, India's deadliest railway tragedy in more than 30 years has left nearly 1,000 people injured.
Meanwhile, the restoration work is underway at the spot of the accident. The capsized bogies have been removed and the work of connecting the track is going on from one side.
"Capsized bogies have been removed...Two bogies of goods train also have been removed...work of connecting track is going on from one side...will finish the work as soon as possible," Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), of South Eastern Railway, Aditya Kumar, told news agency ANI.
Odisha train tragedy: Survivors recount horror
Mizan Ul Haq, a resident of Bardhaman in West Bengal state, was in one of the coaches at the rear of the train.
"The train was running at a high speed. Around 7 pm, a loud sound was heard and everything started moving in all directions. I fell down on the floor from the upper berth as the lights went off inside the compartment," Haq, who was returning home from work in Karnataka on a holiday, told Press Trust of India (PTI).
He said that somehow, he managed to come out of the damaged coach.
"It was ghastly, many people with grave injuries were lying around beside mangled coaches," Haq, who was lucky to have escaped with minor injuries, told PTI at Howrah station, where medical aid, food and other assistance were provided by the railway authorities to the surviving passengers.
Rekha, a Bengaluru resident coming to Kolkata for a visit, said that she was in a coach ahead of the wagons that got derailed.
"It was total chaos initially. We got off our compartment out of fear and sat in the nearby fields in the darkness till our train finally started for Howrah in the wee hours," she said.
Another Bardhaman resident, a carpenter who works in Bengaluru, said he was injured in the chest, feet and head when the coach in which he was travelling turned turtle.
"We had to break open the windows and jump out of the compartment to save ourselves," he said, adding he saw many dead bodies after the accident.
Modi takes stock of situation, lauds locals for courage, compassion
Hours after India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Balasore to take stock of the ground situation at the site of one of the worst railway tragedies, he took to Twitter and lauded 'courage and compassion' shown by the locals.
Also read | India train tragedy: Locals in Odisha's Balasore queue up all-night to donate blood for wounded
"The courage and compassion shown by the people of our nation in the face of adversity is truly inspiring. As soon as the train mishap took place in Odisha, people immersed themselves in assisting rescue ops. Several people lined up to donate blood," Modi said.
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