A train has derailed in southern Pakistan, killing 30 people and injuring more than 90.
Ten carriages of a Rawalpindi-bound train derailed and some overturned, near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah on Sunday, trapping many passengers, said senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho. Officials said rescue operations were completed by early evening.
Local television showed rescue teams extracting women, children and elderly passengers from damaged and overturned carriages. Some of the injured were lying on the ground crying for help while locals gave out water and food. AP photos showed derailed train carriages sprawled across or near the tracks.
Senior police officer Abid Baloch, speaking from the scene of the accident, said the rescue operation was complete: dozens of the injured had been brought to safety and the last flipped carriage cleared. He said women and children were among the dead and injured.
Expressing grief over the loss of life, the prime minister, Shehbaz 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 nearby People’s hospital in Nawabshah. He said the ill-fated Hazara Express was on its way from Karachi to Rawalpindi when 10 carriages went off the tracks near the Sarhari railway station outside 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 neighbourhood were missing and so far we found only four of them, the rest are still missing.”
Mohsin Sayal, another senior railway officer, said train traffic was suspended on the main railway 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.
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 5pm. Now we have been told that it will leave at 8pm. It may even get later. We are waiting. We are suffering because of the poor railway system.”
The minister for railways, Khawaja Saad Rafique, said the crash could be due to a mechanical fault or the result of sabotage. He said an investigation was under way.
He said that military and paramilitary troops along with rescue workers reached the scene and helped 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 railway lines in Pakistan, where colonial-era communications and signal systems haven’t been modernised and safety standards are poor.
