Ten killed, 50 injured in train crashes in northern India-fog-bound northern India

No visibility: Workers lift another damaged train after an almost identical crash in Kanpur, in which 10 people were killed

Crash: The scene after a train rammed into another at Saraibhopat near Etawah in India today as dense fog covered the north of the country

Dense: A cyclist peddles amidst morning fog in New Delhi

Rescue: Workers at the site of the accident in Kanpur today

Indians mill around a damaged coach after the Gorakhdham Express hit the stationary Prayagraj Express


A Kashmiri man rides a scooter during snowfall in Srinagar, India, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010. The higher reaches of northern Indian states of Jammu Kashmir received snow while other parts of northern India suffered from cold wave conditions.


Five passenger trains collided in three accidents amid dense fog in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh Saturday, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring more than 40.

Railway spokesman Rajesh Dutt Bajpai said the Gorakhdham Express rammed into the Prayagraj Express near the Panki railway station in Kanpur, 90km south of the state capital, Lucknow.

"The Prayagraj Express was standing near the station when the Gorakhdham Express hit it from behind due to reduced visibility owing to the fog," Bajpai said.

Officials at the Railway Ministry headquarters in national capital New Delhi confirmed that seven men and three women were among the victims.

Over 30 injured were moved to three local hospitals and the death toll was likely to rise as nearly a dozen passengers sustained "serious injuries."

Rescue operations continued till late in the afternoon after which the tracks were cleared of the coaches that had derailed after the impact.

In the second accident Saturday, the Lichchavi Express and the Magadh Express passenger trains collided in the eastern district of Etawah.

Thirteen passengers, including the train driver, were injured in the collision, the NDTV network reported.

Railway officials said visibility at both sites was only about 30 metres because of dense fog.

Later on Saturday, a third train accident due to fog involving Sarju Express and a railway maintenance trolley was reported from near the Allahabad city. Four people suffered minor injuries in the incident.

"Although fog appears to be the main reason behind the accidents, the railways has ordered probes into the accidents," Bajpai said.

"The commissioner of railway safety has been tasked with the investigations," he said. Railway authorities announced compensation of 500,000 rupees (USD10,730) to the families of those killed.

Scores of passengers were likely to be stranded at railway stations as traffic on the busy train route was suspended after the accidents.

Dense fog created havoc across India's northern regions on Saturday, hitting air and road traffic as well.

Three people died in road accidents in Delhi caused by the blinding fog, the IANS news agency reported.

Railway authorities said 54 trains, most of them connecting Delhi with other key northern cities were delayed.

More than 35 domestic and international flights were also delayed or cancelled, as no flight could take off or land for nearly eight hours from the Delhi international airport due to reduced runway visibility.

Several parts of four northern Indian states including Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir faced power cuts earlySaturday due to problem with the regional power grid.

Electricity was restored in most regions except the Kashmir valley by early afternoon, officials said.

At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured in three separate accidents involving trains in the fog-bound northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, police and railway officials said.

In the first accident, an inter-city express rammed into the back of a stationary passenger train near the town of Sarai Bhupat, 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of the state capital Lucknow.

Additional police director general Brij Lal said 10 passengers were injured including three whose condition doctors described as "grave."

Ten people were killed in the second accident 45 minutes later when two other express trains collided in similar fashion, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Lucknow, Lal said.

Three of those killed were women, rail officials at the accident site said.

"We have rushed 37 injured passengers to hospitals but the condition of 12 of them is critical," officer Lal told AFP.

Senior railways official M.N. Srivastava said the impact in both train collisions had been minimised by the fact that the trains were travelling at low speeds because of the dense fog.

In a third accident, a passenger train slammed into a tractor at an unmanned rail crossing, officer Lal said, adding that three people on the tractor were injured in the mishap, near Allahabad city, also in Uttar Pradesh.

There were no injuries to passengers on the train, he said.

Visibility at the three accident sites was down to around 30 metres (100 feet).

The string of accidents threw train services into disarray across India, rail officials said in New Delhi.

Obsolete safety measures and unmanned crossings result in frequent rail accidents in India, where more than 13 million people travel on state-run railways every day.

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