Train derailment kills at least 50 people

An express train crowded with holiday travellers derailed in Pakistan early today, killing at least 50 people and injuring many more, officials said.

The express train was going from Karachi to Lahore when about 12 of its 16 carriages came off the rails near Mehrabpur, about 400 kilometres north of Karachi, the officials said.

Rescue workers recovered 50 bodies from the wreckage and were calling in cutting equipment to gain access to more of the carriages, said Sikander Ali, a senior police official at the scene.

Other officials said dozens more passengers were injured and that relief trains were being sent to provide help.

The train, which derailed at about 2am local time (9pm Irish time Tuesday), was packed with passengers travelling home for the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Adha.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Deadly accidents are a regular occurrence on Pakistan’s sprawling, colonial-era railway network.

A speeding train struck a crowded bus at a railway crossing near Lahore in October, killing 12 people and injuring about 50 others.

About 133 people died in July 2005 when three trains collided in southern Pakistan.

But David John, a supervisor for the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest privately-run emergency service, said that 32 dead bodies and 139 injured people have been pulled out of the wreckage so far.

Dozens of passengers were still trapped in two carriages and rescue workers were using gas cutters to break the metal wreckage and reach them, Mr John said.

“We can hear women and children crying inside the two carriages,” Mr John said by phone from the scene.

It was not possible immediately to reconcile the conflicting figures on the death toll.

Azhar Ali Rajpar, a local villager who heard the crash and rushed to help, said he had seen dozens of dead bodies and “countless” injured people.

“Almost all of the carriages were destroyed,” Rajpar said by telephone. “There is total darkness. It is almost impossible for the rescuers.”

Mohammed Khalid, a railway official who was travelling in one of the rear wagons which stayed on the rails, said he suspected a problem with the track - possibly sabotage – caused the accident.

Some of the carriages had plunged into water standing alongside the rails, Khalid said.

Mehrabpur Mayor Farooq Ahmed Lodhi said the bodies of nine people who died had reached the city’s hospital along with about 80 others injured in the crash.

“People from villages near the scene have brought food, water and blankets for victims of the accident,” Mr Lodhi said.

Maqsoodun Nabi, a railway official in Karachi, said the train was packed with about 700 passengers, including a large wedding party who had booked a special carriage.