Two passenger trains and a goods train collided in an accident on Friday evening in the city of Balasore in eastern India, according to a video statement by Sri Pradeep Jena, chief secretary of Odisha, the state where the crash took place.
"We cannot rule out fatalities," Naveen Patnaik, Odisha's chief minister, in what he described as a "violent train accident." He added that "we have not yet counted the number so I cant officially confirm exact number" of fatalities.
Injuries and a death toll have not been cited yet by authorities, but "people have been seriously affected/injured," according to a tweet by Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the state of West Bengal. "All our efforts for rescue, retrieval, aid and assistance initiated," the chief minister tweeted.
Local authorities say rescue teams have been dispatched to the site of the crash, and efforts include more than 50 ambulances and several fire service units, said Patnaik in a tweet.
One of trains involved in the accident is the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel express, carrying passengers from West Bengal, Banerjee said on Twitter. The train travels through India's east coast, between West Bengal's capital Kolkata to the South Indian city of Chennai.
The crash has shocked the country, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting his condolences. "Distressed by the train accident in Odisha. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Rescue ops are underway at the site of the mishap and all possible assistance is being given to those affected," he wrote.
India's Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology announced that about $12,136 will be provided as compensation to victims' families in the case of death, and $2,427 will be provided for individuals with grievous injuries, and $606 will be given to people with minor injuries from the accident.
India's extensive rail network suffers from aging infrastructure and poor maintenance -- factors that are often responsible for accidents.
In 2021, some 16,431 people were killed in nearly 18,000 railway accidents across the country. "Majority (67.7%) of railway accident cases were reported (as) 'Fall from trains /collision with people on track," according to a 2021 report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
One of the most deadly incidents of recent years occurred in November 2016, when more than 140 people were killed after several train cars derailed in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
The following November, at least 39 people died and 50 others were seriously injured in a train derailment in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
