71 die as rebels derail train in India
It took rescuers more than three hours to reach the scene. The blue passenger train and a red cargo train were knotted together along a rural stretch of track near the small town of Sardiha, about 150km west of Calcutta in West Bengal state.
Officials disagreed on the cause of the derailment, with some saying it was caused by an explosion but others blaming sabotaged rail lines. Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a statement that a section of the railway tracks had been cut, but “whether explosives were used is not yet clear”.
