INDIA: AT LEAST 145 UNIDENTIFIED BODIES PULLED OUT OF THE MANGLED WRECKAGE OF TRAIN CRASH CREMATED IN A MASS CEREMONY

Record ID: 1379386

  • Title: INDIA: AT LEAST 145 UNIDENTIFIED BODIES PULLED OUT OF THE MANGLED WRECKAGE OF TRAIN CRASH CREMATED IN A MASS CEREMONY
  • Date: 7th August 1999
  • Summary: SILIGURI, WEST BENGAL, INDIA (AUGUST 6, 1999) (ANI) MCU SIKH PRIEST OFFERING PRAYERS MCU MUSLIM PRIEST OFFERING PRAYERS CU HOLY BOOK SV PRIESTS OF ALL RELIGIONS OFFERING PRAYERS CU OF HANDS MCU NUN PRAYING SLV/SV PEOPLE LIGHTING PYRE (3 SHOTS) SLV PEOPLE STANDING BY BURNING PYRE (2 SHOTS) CU PYRES BURNING SLV/SV MAN WORKING AT THE PYRE (3 SHOTS) SLV PYRES BURNING SV PYRES
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2005 19:18
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SILIGURI, WEST BENGAL AND GAISAL, INDIA
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Accidents,General,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVADWZMLLKVLD90XWAK8ONVNLBT2
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: At least 145 unidentified bodies pulled out of the mangled wreckage of one of India's worst train crashes were cremated late on Friday (August 6) night.
    Indian Railways, along with hospital authorities and some local non-governmental organisations, on Friday (August 6) night held a mass cremation of 145 unidentified bodies of Monday's Gaisal railway disaster.
    Most of the bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition and could not be recognised.
    Priests of various religious faiths chanted prayers before the rows of pyres were lit.
    Officials said 285 people were killed and 312 were injured in Monday's head-on collision between two trains operated by Northeast Frontier Railway at Gaisal station, some 400 km (250 miles) north of the eastern city of Calcutta.
    The bodies of only 66 people could be identified by relatives who arrived on Friday morning by a special train from Delhi.
    Five young children injured in the crash remain unidentified.They are aged between one and a half years and four years.
    India on Thursday (August 5) suspended five railway officials and ordered a second inquiry into why the two crowded trains, many of whose passengers were asleep at the time of the crash, ended up on the same line of a two-track stretch of railway.
    Rescue workers on Thursday stopped searching for bodies at Gaisal where the Awadh-Assam Express heading for the northeast state of Assam slammed into the New Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail.
    On Tuesday (August 4), Railway Minister Nitish Kumar resigned and said he took moral responsibility for the disaster.He spoke of "criminal negligence" by railway staff.
    Indian Railways says its safety record has improved in terms of total traffic and that accidents per million kilometres traveled fell to 0.57 in 1996/97 (April/March) from
    5 in 1960/61.
    But critics say it has failed to put right a record of some 300 accidents a year, about two-thirds of which are blamed on staff negligence.
    Experts say a surge in traffic and slow modernisation have made India's 107,000-km (66,800-mile) network increasingly vulnerable to accidents.
  • Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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