500 feared dead in Indian train disaster

GUWAHATI, India, Aug 2 (AFP) - Up to 500 people were feared dead when two passenger trains collided head on Monday at a railway station in eastern India, in one of the country's worst train disasters.

"Some of our men who returned from the site said the death toll could be as high as 500," said an officer with the Border Security Force helping with relief operations.

As many as 1,000 people were injured, of which more than 100 were said to be in a critical condition.

Railway officials, who put the toll at 210 confirmed dead, said initial investigations suggested a signals failure was responsible for the collision.

Earlier reports had suggested the crash was caused by a bomb blast.

The collision took place at around 2:00 a.m. (2030 GMT Sunday) when the Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail smashed into the Abodh-Assam Express at Gaisal, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Jalpaiguri on the state border of West Bengal and Assam.

Doctors at Sadar hospital in the nearby town of Kishanganj, which was receiving many of the injured, also indicated the death toll was far higher than the official figure.

"The reports we are getting from the site and some of the survivors suggest a toll in the area of 500," said Doctor R. Jaiswal, adding that teams of medical students had gone to the site to provide basic first-aid.

According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), West Bengal Minister of State for Civil Defence Srikumar Mukherjee "expressed apprehension that the toll might cross the 500 mark."

District sub-divisional magistrate Samir Bannerjee, who was helping coordinate relief operations at Gaisal, said rescue teams were having difficulty cutting through the wreckage to retrieve the bodies.

"The trains were on the same track, probably due to a signals failure," Bannerjee said.

"The station staff at Gaisal said they heard an explosion, but it seems this was actually the sound of the initial contact between the two trains.

"The two engines and the first three or four carriages of both trains were horribly mangled together, and it's going to take some time to cut through and confirm the final death toll," he said.

The injured were being taken to hospitals in nearby Kishanganj and Islampur.

Railway Minister Nitish Kumar arrived at the site Monday afternoon to oversee the rescue operations.

Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Surtikant, denied reports that one of the trains might have been carrying military explosives.

"We never, repeat never, transport explosives by passenger train," Surtikant said.

Kishanganj district magistrate R.S.B. Singh, who visited the site, described a scene of utter carnage. "At least 10 of the carriages were completely burned out, and it seems that many of the passengers were burned alive," Singh said.

"There were body parts strewn everywhere, and the trains are so badly mangled together that there could be hundreds of bodies still trapped inside," he added.

The earlier reports of a bomb blast had pointed to the possible involvement of separatist militants fighting for autonomy in northeast India.

A goods train was derailed on Sunday in westwern Assam after tribal Bodo militants triggered an explosive device on the tracks in Barpeta district.

Rail crashes are frequent in India, which has the world's second largest train network after China and carries some 13 million passengers daily.

President K.R. Narayanan expressed shock at Monday's tragedy, saying it highlighted "the crying need to improve the safety measures of the railways for the benefit of the travelling public."

India's worst train disaster of recent years occurred in August 1995, when 302 people died after two express trains collided in Firozabad near Delhi.

In November last year, 210 people were killed when a speeding train rammed into a derailed express in the northern state of Punjab.

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