Odisha train crash: Rescuers work overtime, 200 ambulances pressed into service
Officials said cranes were at the scene to remove the mangled coaches including some mounted on each other and to pull the survivors out
At least 1,200 disaster relief personnel and firemen were searching mangled carriages at the scene of one of the worst rail accidents near Odisha’s Balasore while around 200 ambulances, a fleet of state transport buses, and mobile health units have been pressed into service to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy.
Officials said cranes were at the scene to remove the mangled coaches including some mounted on each other and to pull the survivors out.
A train went off the tracks and hit another one on Friday. One of them also hit a parked freight train and left a tangle of smashed coaches.
“It will take at least another three hours to reach everyone or everybody trapped in the debris,” said Odisha chief secretary PK Jena. “Special cranes will be brought in from Kolkata to lift these wagons and bring out the buried wagon.”
Mangled steel and bloodied and disfigured bodies lay enmeshed while railway tracks were also almost destroyed at the spot as the toll from the tragedy rose to 290 on Saturday. Over 900 passengers have been injured in the accident.
The toll was likely to rise as two general bogies of the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express were thrown into a ditch. Dozens of bodies are believed to be trapped in the bogies.
