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58 feared killed in train crash

PHOTO: AFP

TRAGEDY ON RAILS: The wreckage of the train following an accident in the southern Pakistani town of Mehrabpur on Wednesday.

MEHRABPUR (Pakistan ): Plunged into darkness and chaos, Shahid Khan used the light from his cell phone to escape the wreckage of an express train that had been taking holiday travellers home.

It was 2 a.m., and what was left of the train, crowded with 900 persons heading from Karachi to near Lahore, lay scattered about a waterlogged field, with cries from the trapped and injured ringing out. At least 58 persons died and 150 were injured when about 12 of the 16 cars came off the rails near Mehrabpur, about 400 km north of Karachi.

“The train was going at full speed. Then there was a sudden jerk and we felt the train sinking into the earth. There was chaos everywhere,” said the 25-year-old Khan, sitting next to bundles of luggage he had salvaged from a car lying on its side.

He had been travelling with six relatives whose condition was not immediately known.

Another passenger, Mohammed Yusuf, sat on a pink blanket next to a pile of discarded shoes and clothes, wailing in grief at the death of his younger brother.

He said his wife, two children and another brother were injured and taken to a hospital, condition unknown.

Yusuf (26) said his brother survived the impact and was crying out in pain, but that he had been unable to free his trapped leg from the wreckage.

“It’s unbearable. Don’t say that he is dead,” he pleaded, as other relatives tried to console him.

It was unclear what caused the accident, which left hundreds of terrified passengers trying to claw their way out of the mangled wreckage in total darkness.

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.

“My guess is that there was some piece of rail missing and the engine jumped the missing track and the following wagon got stuck,” he said.

After the crash, a section of one rail had been torn loose. The engine came to a halt about 1.5 km further up the line.

Brig. Nazhar Jamil, Army officer in charge of the relief operation, said an initial inspection of the track found no sign of sabotage.

He said excessive speed coupled with poor maintenance might have been to blame.

Rescuers brought 58 bodies to three nearby hospitals, said an official. — AP

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