Desperate relatives searched Sunday for loved ones missing after India’s worst train disaster in decades, and the death toll was expected to climb above 288 as authorities searched for clues to the cause.
Debris was piled high at the site of Friday night’s crash near Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha, with compartments smashed and the blood-stained wreckage of some carriages flung far from the tracks.
“There were severed arms, legs, and even some partially severed heads – while the unluckier ones died in pain, too much pain,” said witness Hiranmay Rath. Over the next few hours the 20-year-old saw “more death and grief” than he could have “ever imagined”, he said.
Authorities said every hospital between the crash site and the state capital Bhubaneswar, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) away, was receiving victims. Around 200 ambulances – and even buses – were deployed to transport them.
The rescue effort was declared over on Saturday evening after emergency personnel had combed the mangled wreckage for survivors and laid scores of bodies out under white sheets beside the tracks.
“All the dead bodies and injured passengers have been removed from the accident site,” said an official from the Balasore emergency control room.
Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of Odisha Fire Services, said the death toll stood at 288 but was expected to rise further, potentially approaching 380.
Odisha state’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena confirmed that about 900 injured people had been hospitalised. India has one of the world’s largest rail networks and has seen several disasters over the years, the worst of them in 1981 when a train derailed while crossing a bridge in Bihar and plunged into the river below, killing between 800 and 1,000 people.
Friday’s crash ranks as its third-worst, and the deadliest since 1995, when two express trains collided in Firozabad, near Agra, killing more than 300 people. The disaster comes despite new investments and upgrades in technology that have significantly improved railway safety in recent years.
The railways ministry has announced an investigation.
