More than 10 people dead after India train crash

BHUBANESWAR - The death toll from a train crash in India has risen to 13, with 39 injured, said an official on Monday, with investigators suspecting human error to be the cause of the crash in the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh.

The incident occurred on Sunday when the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada passenger train stopped due to a break in an overhead cable and the Visakhapatnam-Palasa Express service rammed into it from the rear, derailing two carriages of the stationary train.

Ms Nagalakshmi S, a senior government official in the district where the crash occurred, told Reuters that more than 90 people were in the two coaches that were hit by the second train, and that the toll had risen to 13 dead and 39 injured.

The Ministry of Railways said a preliminary investigation found that “human error” led to an “overshooting of signal” by the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada train.

An Andhra Pradesh fire services officer said early on Monday that no passengers were left at the site.

The incident comes just months after India’s state-run railways saw their worst train crash in two decades when 292 people were killed.

In that disaster, a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped off the tracks, and hit another passenger train coming from the opposite direction.

Federal police arrested three railway employees on charges of culpable homicide and causing evidence to disappear.

Indian Railways, the fourth-largest train network in the world, is a state monopoly run by the Railway Board. The board reports to the federal Railways Ministry.

The rail network is undergoing a US$30 billion (S$41 billion) transformation, with new trains and modern stations, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to boost infrastructure and connectivity.

On Sunday, Mr Modi said on social media platform X that he had spoken to the Railways Minister. REUTERS