At least 30 people were killed and at least 60 more were injured when a train crashed in southern Pakistan on Sunday, according to officials. Rescue efforts were in progress.
According to senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho, ten carriages of a train headed for Rawalpindi derailed and some overturned near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah, trapping many passengers.
Rescue teams were shown on local television removing women, children, and elderly passengers from wrecked and overturned vehicles. While residents distributed food and water to the injured, some of them were lying on the ground pleading for assistance. Derailed railway cars were seen in or close to the tracks in AP images.
30 bodies had been found at the scene of the disaster, according to senior police official Abid Baloch, while more than 60 people had been hurt, some seriously. He noted that as rescue efforts go on, the dead toll can go up.
According to Baloch, among the victims and injured were women and children.
Rescue workers sent injured passengers to the neighboring People’s Hospital in Nawabshah, according to Lakho, who is in charge of the trains in the accident region. He claimed that ten cars from the tragic Hazara Express, which was traveling from Karachi to Rawalpindi, veered off the tracks close to the Sarhari railway station at Nawabshah.
Train travel on the main railway line was suspended while repair trains were sent to the location, according to Mohsin Sayal, another senior railway officer. Sayal promised that the people on the train will have access to alternate modes of transportation and medical care.
The incident may have been caused by sabotage or a mechanical issue, according to Khaja Saad Rafiq, the minister of railways. He declared that an inquiry was ongoing.
In Pakistan, where safety standards are subpar and colonial-era communications & signal systems remain in place, train accidents frequently occur on poorly maintained railway tracks.