12 killed as train passengers fleeing fire in India jump onto tracks and get hit by another train

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At least 12 train passengers died after they jumped from their coaches to escape a fire on Wednesday when they were struck by another service on a neighboring track in western India, the Press Trust of India reported.

At least six other people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals, police officer Dattatraya Karale told the news agency.

The accident took place near the Pardhad railway station in the state of Maharashtra, about 255 miles southwest of India’s financial capital, Mumbai.

PTI said the victims jumped off the Pushpak Express train, which stopped after some passengers pulled the emergency chain. Another express train hit them on the tracks near the people who got off, PTI quoted railway spokesperson Swapnil Neela as saying.

Train passengers died Wednesday after a fire on their train caused them to jump off and were crushed by another train, officials said.

ANI/Reuters

“Our preliminary information is that there was a fire in one of the Pushpak Express coaches due to ‘hot axle’ or ‘brake-binding’ and some passengers panicked. They pulled the chain and some jumped. On the tracks, at the same time, the Karnataka Express was passing on the connecting track. It was,” a senior railway official told PTI.

Despite efforts to reform the government. Railway safety, Hundreds of accidents It happens every year Indian RailwaysIt is the largest railway network in the world under one administration.

In the year In 2023, two passenger trains collided in eastern India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds. Deadliest train accidents In decades.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focusing on modernizing India’s British colonial-era railway network. 1.42 billion is the world’s most populous country.