Pakistan train crash kills at least 128

THREE trains crashed after a train driver misread a signal in southern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 128 people and injuring hundreds more.

It was the country's worst crash in more than a decade.

The night-time accident jolted passengers awake to a horrifying smash that left metal, glass and body parts strewn across a remote railway station near Ghotki. Rescuers frantically cut through twisted metal to reach survivors, as ambulances and buses ferried the injured to nearby hospitals.

"We woke up to a huge bang," said Suraya, a 22-year-old woman.

"I fell to the floor. Then I heard the screams."

At the scene, villagers and surviving passengers some splattered with blood peered into the wreckage looking for victims.

Massive train wheels, springs and other train parts ripped from carriages were scattered between the tracks.

Carriages lay on their side. Others were crumpled into heaps of twisted metal. Bodies of victims were wrapped in white cloth and piled together. "It is a very gruesome situation," local police chief Agha Mohammed Tahir said. He said 128 people had died, including three who died later from their injuries at a hospital in Ghotki.

Abdul Wahab Awan, general manager of Pakistan Railways, said hundreds more were injured.

Mr Awan blamed the driver of the Karachi Express for misreading a signal and smashing into the back of another passenger train.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf offered his condolences to the injured and the families of those killed, and promised that anyone guilty of negligence would be prosecuted.

"It is clear that this was not sabotage. We will immediately start an inquiry and if there was any carelessness involved, it should be punished," he said.

The accident occurred at about 4am near Ghotki, 370 miles north-east of Karachi, in remote Sindh province.

Pakistan's railways are antiquated and there have been many accidents in recent years including several at Ghotki blamed often on faulty equipment or human error.