Locals pull bodies from India train crash as toll hits 61

MITHUN MAHATO was fast asleep on an overnight train before an enormous jolt awakened him and he panicked because his coach was flipping over.

He lay with his leg broken for five hours, crushed under dead bodies of other passengers as he waited for help.

The powerful crash between two express trains at a station in eastern India early yesterday morning killed 61 people and injured scores more, many of whom are now critical. The force of the crash was so intense the roof of one car was thrust onto an overpass above the tracks.