19 dead and 100 hurt after horror train crash derails three carriages

A horror train crash has left at least 19 dead and 100 more hurt after it smashed into another stationary passenger train in India.

The crash happened in Andhra Pradesh state's Vizianagaram district on Sunday, leading to derailment of at least three rail carriages, senior railway officer Saurab Prasad said. Several rescue teams and residents were extracting injured passengers from the wreckage.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy asked authorities to send as many ambulances as possible to the crash site and issued orders to coordinate other government departments to initiate disaster-relief measures.

(AP)

The railway ministry said in a statement that two coaches of one of the trains carrying around 90 passengers were derailed. A preliminary investigation has found "human error" led to the collision, caused by "overshooting of signal" by the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada passenger train between Alamanda and Kantakapalle.

The Visakhapatnam-Rayagada passenger train stopped due to a break in an overhead cable and the oncoming train, a Visakhapatnam-Palasa Express service, rammed into it, derailing carriages of the stationary train, a senior railways official said.

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Train crashes are common in India and are often blamed mostly on human error or outdated signalling equipment. In June, more than 280 people were killed in one of the country's deadliest rail crashes in decades after two passenger trains rammed into each other in eastern India. Federal police arrested three railway employees on charges of culpable homicide and causing evidence to disappear.

A preliminary investigation has found 'human error' led to the collision (AP)

More than 12 million people use 14,000 trains across India every day, travelling on 40,000 miles of track. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing to increase infrastructure and connectivity, with the rail network undergoing a £24.7billion transformation with new trains and modern stations.

Modi said today on X, formerly called Twitter, that he had spoken with the railways minister. "Authorities are providing all possible assistance to those affected," he said.