107 dead in Pakistan train disaster

Three trains collided in a deadly chain-reaction after a conductor misread a signal in southern Pakistan, killing at least 107 people and wounding hundreds more in the country’s worst crash in more than a decade.

The accident left metal and glass strewn across a remote railway station near Ghotki. Rescuers frantically cut through twisted metal to reach survivors, as ambulances and buses streamed in to ferry the injured to nearby hospitals.

“It is a very gruesome situation,” said local police chief Agha Mohammed Tahir. “Rescue workers have started to pull the dead and injured out. There were many people inside and there are many casualties.”

Abdul Wahab Awan, general manager of Pakistan Railways, said officials on the scene told him more than 100 people were dead, and hundreds more injured. He blamed the conductor of the night-coach Karachi Express for misreading a signal and rear-ending another passenger train.

“The crash occurred because of misreading of a signal by the driver of Karachi Express and it rammed the Quetta Express, which was not moving,” Awan said.

Ghulam Mohammed Muhtarim, the home secretary of Sindh province, said 104 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage. More than 100 people with serious injuries were admitted to hospitals, and scores more were treated at the scene, he said.

Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, the national crisis manager at the Interior Ministry, ruled out sabotage, saying the crash was “a pure accident”.

He declined to give a death toll, saying only that “a lot of people have died”.

“We cannot give a figure for the death toll, and a rescue operation is going on,” he added.

The accident happened about 4am near Ghotki, 370 miles north-east of Karachi, in remote Sindh province. The initial collision derailed at least three carriages onto another track where they were struck by the third train, causing further derailment, said Abdul Aziz, a senior controller at Pakistan Railways.

In all, some 13 carriages were derailed.

Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed, a rail official in Ghotki, said about a thousand people were believed to be travelling in the three trains.

Survivors described awaking to the horror while being thrown from their beds and seats.

“We were sleeping and we woke up to a huge bang,” said Suraya, a 22-year-old woman who like many Pakistanis goes by just one name. “I fell down to the floor. Then I heard the screams.”

Khuda Bakhsh Larak, 50, who was in the Quetta Express and suffered head injuries and a broken leg, said: “Our train was standing still when it was hit from the rear. Our carriage jumped and flipped on its side.”

Naveed Zubairi, a cameraman who was travelling on the Karachi Express with his family, described a scene of confusion following the collision.

“My children were crying in the darkness. Then I made some light with my mobile phone to look around. There were injured people nearby,” he said. “I went out of the carriage. Four carriages of another train on an adjacent track had fallen on one side and people in them were shouting for help. They were breaking windows to get out.”

Zubairi suffered minor head injuries.

Some 30 bodies and over 100 injured people were taken to the Civil Hospital in the nearby town of Sukkur, said Iqbal Ahmed, a doctor there. He said at least 12 people were in a critical condition, some with lost limbs or massive head injuries.

Rescuers had to cut through metal to get to some of the injured, said Tahir, the local police chief.

“They are being pulled out every minute,” he said.

The Quetta Express was travelling from the eastern city of Lahore to the south-western city of Quetta when it developed a technical problem and stopped at the station. Technicians were working on the train when the Karachi Express, headed from Lahore to the southern port city of Karachi, ploughed into it.

The impact pushed three carriages onto an adjacent track, and they in turn were hit by the Tezgam Express, heading from Karachi north to Rawalpindi.

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.