JOIN US20 feared killed after two trains collide in TN
Tragedy struck the Arakkonam-Katpadi passenger train that was waiting for signal clearance at Chitteri railway station, the next after Arakkonam, when a speeding Vellore-bound Electrical Multiple Unit from Chennai Beach station rammed into it, a police officer at the accident spot told Deccan Herald over the telephone.
While the Southern Railway Public Relations Officer put the initial death toll at seven, the police officer said heavier casualties were feared as one bogey of the stationary train and three compartments of the train that collided from behind had derailed due the impact of the crash.
Several passengers, including women and children, were trapped in the derailed bogies, sources said. It is not yet clear whether signal failure had led to the accident.
Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force stationed at Arakkonam were rushed to the accident spot.
Two relief trains from Chennai with officials and medical personnel were also rushed around 9:30 pm, according to sources.
Heavy rain in the area and darkness hampered the relief and rescue operations. Many injured passengers were moved to Arakkonam Government Hospital, the police official said.
The accident had a cascading effect with the Bangalore-bound trains leaving Chennai Central after 9 pm being indefinitely delayed, sources said. The Southern Railway has cancelled some trains, including Chennai-Bangalore Mail and Yercaud Express to Erode.
In New Delhi, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi told television channels that the Tamil Nadu chief Secretary had informed him that all the trapped passengers were shifted to various hospitals.
Trivedi also announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
Preliminary probe into the cause of the accident has already begun, the minister added.
Earlier in the day, another major train disaster in Tamil Nadu was averted when an alert driver of the Chennai Egmore-Sencottah super-fast Express slowed down on noticing concrete sleepers strewn on the railway track near Sankarankovil in Tirunelveli district down South.
Police said that was an attempted act of sabotage that was providentially foiled, leading to a miraculous escape for hundreds of passengers.