The number of dead in the Kanpur train accident climbed to 145 on Monday, with 123 bodies being identified so far, says P DGP Javeed Ahmed.
Search operation is in the final stage, says the NDRF, which has so far rescued 55 people and extricated 74 bodies. The NDRF has deployed five search and rescue teams for the operation.
Over 200 people were injured as 14 bogies of the Patna-bound Indore-Rajendranagar Express went off the track in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh in the early hours of Sunday.
Of the deceased identified so far, 45 are from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from Madhya Pradesh, 14 from Bihar and one from Maharashtra. "Efforts on for identifying the rest," Mr. Ahmed said. One hundred and ten bodies have been handed over to the kin, he added.
The derailment took place between the Pukhrayan and Malasa stations along the Jhansi-Kanpur section at 3.10 a.m. While the S3 and S4 sleeper coaches were thrown off on to the nearby fields, S1 and S2 in front of them bore the brunt, as the coaches smashed into each other leaving behind mangled iron.
The third AC coach B3 was also heavily damaged. Such was the intensity of the impact that survivors compared it to the shock of a “tremor.”
While the cause of the derailment is not known, railway officials suspect a rail fracture. In addition to the other departmental inquiries by the railways, P.K. Acharya, Commissioner, Railway Safety, Eastern Circle, Kolkata, will hold the statutory inquiry on Monday and Tuesday, a North Central Railway spokesperson said.
S.K. Agarwal, DRM, Jhansi division, said the cause could not be ascertained right away, even as he hinted there was no tampering with the track.
“The Sabarmati Express crossed the same track nine minutes earlier. It would have reported any fault. The driver felt no jerks. It is difficult to point out a reason at this moment,” Mr. Agarwal told The Hindu.
Expressing sadness over the incident, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has instructed district and State office bearers to cancel all celebrations of his 78th birthday on Tuesday.
