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29 March 2024

'30 dead' in India after train smashes into bus

Commuters travelling on a local train past clothes hanging out to dry near the track in New Delhi. (REUTERS)

Published
By AFP

At least 30 people were killed after a train rammed into a packed bus carrying a marriage party in northern India in the early hours of Thursday morning, television channels reported.

The NDTV and Times Now channels said the accident took place in Kanshiram Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh state.

The reports said the bus was returning from a wedding when it drove in front of the speeding train at an unmanned crossing on the railway line.

Pictures from the scene showed debris strewn across the tracks and police officers carrying bodies covered with sheets on stretchers.

India's state-run railway system - still the main form of long-distance travel despite fierce competition from new private airlines - carries 18.5 million people daily.

There are hundreds of incidents on the railways every year, but this is the most deadly accident in 2011.

In May last year, nearly 150 people were killed when a Mumbai-bound high-speed passenger express from Kolkata veered off the tracks into the path of an oncoming freight train after the track had apparently been sabotaged.

In July 2010, more than 60 people were killed and 165 injured when a speeding express rammed into the back of a stationary passenger train in the eastern state of West Bengal.

The worst accident in India was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.