Express train derails in southern Pakistan, killing 30 people and injuring more than 90

Some of the derailed cars on the Hazara Express train overturned in the crash near the town of Nawabshah, senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho said. The train was going from Karachi to Rawalpindi when the 10 cars went off the tracks near the Sarhari railway station.

Senior police officer Abid Baloch said from the scene that the rescue operation was complete by early evening: Dozens of the injured were brought to safety and the last flipped car cleared.

The driver of the Hazara Express told Geo News that the speed of the train was around 50 kilometres per hour when 10 out of 19 compartments went off the track one after the another.

“The maximum speed limit on the line is 105 km per hour so we were well within the speed limit. I have no idea what happened,” he said.

Rescue operations after a train derailed in Sarhari town in district Sanghar, Pakistan. (Reuters)

Television channels showed the crash site with train compartments badly damaged near the station. They showed rescue workers and police trying to pull out people from the derailed compartments along with civilians who also joined the rescue work.

“Right now, the focus is on rescue work and recovering people from the derailed compartments,” an official said.
He said that the cause of the accident is being investigated.

The state-run Radio Pakistan reported that the Pakistan Army and Rangers were involved in relief and rescue activities at the accident site.

The rescue operation has been started on the special directives of Army chief General Asim Munir, it added. Additional troops have been called in to assist the rescue operation. The Army Aviation helicopters are also reaching the spot to rescue the injured people.

Rescue workers locate survivors at the site of a passenger train derailed near Nawabshah. (AP/PTI)

A spokesperson of the Pakistan Railways in Karachi earlier said at least eight bogies derailed and the intensity of the accident increased due to delayed application of brakes. The official said the affected bogies would be lifted off the track in a few hours using heavy machines and added that trains departing from Karachi might face delays.

Expressing grief over the loss of life, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif prayed during a political gathering in Punjab for the souls of the departed and for the quick recovery of those injured. “We all pray, may Allah grant a place in heaven to those who passed away and I wish quick recovery for the injured,” he said.

Lakho, who is in charge of railways in the accident area, said rescue crews took injured passengers to the People’s Hospital in Nawabshah. Ihtesham Ali lost his family members and was looking for them in the chaotic situation. “Seven members of my family and 22 from my neighborhood were missing and so far we found only four of them, rest are still missing.”

Mohsin Sayal, another senior railway officer, said train traffic was suspended on the main line as repair trains were dispatched to the scene. Sayal said alternative travel arrangements and medical care would be made available for the train’s passengers.

A Pakistani identifies body of his relative, who was died in a passenger train derailed incident, at a hospital, in Nawabshah, Pakistan, Sunday. (AP Photo)

All trains in both directions were held at the nearest stations till the tracks could be cleared, while all departures were delayed. Passengers at Karachi station complained that they were waiting in hope as railway authorities kept changing departure times.

Owais Iqbal, a Lahore bound passenger at Karachi railway station said: ”Our train was to depart at 5 p.m. Now we have been told that it will leave at 8 p.m. It may even get later. We are waiting. We are suffering because of the poor railway system.”

Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq said an investigation into the cause of the crash was underway. He said that military and paramilitary troops helped rescue workers to rescue the trapped passengers. The most seriously injured passengers were transported to distant hospitals in military helicopters for better treatment.

Train crashes often happen on poorly maintained railways tracks in Pakistan, where colonial-era communications and signal systems haven’t been modernized and safety standards are poor.