At least 20 people have been killed and dozens more injured after two trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi early yesterday, officials said.
Witnesses described watching in horror as one train sped into the city’s Quaidabad Railway Station and rammed into the second, which was parked there, with the roar of the crash swiftly followed by the screams of people trapped inside.
Rescuers with metal-cutting equipment and heavy cranes were fighting to reach passengers still trapped in the twisted wreckage. They were joined by the military and police officers, a journalist at the site of the crash said.
Photo: Reuters
The engine of one train appeared destroyed, he said, but the exact extent of the damage was unclear.
A senior administration official in Karachi said there could have been up to 1,000 passengers on board the trains when the accident occurred.
“At the moment, we don’t know the exact number of casualties, but there could be up to 1,000 passengers on both trains,” said Nasir Nazeer, the district coordination officer in Karachi.
“We have sent heavy machinery and cutting equipment to remove the overturned cars from the track, and rescue the trapped passengers inside the coaches,” he said.
Jinnah Hospital spokeswoman Seemi Jamali said the hospital had received about 50 wounded.
The accident occurred when the incoming Zakria Express from Multan rammed into the Fareed Express from Lahore as it waited at Quaidabad Railway Station, also known as Jumma Goth, in the Landi neighborhood of Karachi.
Factory worker Ajab Gul said he was on his way to work when the accident occurred.
“Suddenly another train came speeding in and smashed into the parked train,” Gul said, describing the sound of the crash as “huge.”
“There were clouds of dust and smog. After that we heard screams. People inside the collided trains were screaming and crying,” he said.
Onlookers rushed to their aid, he said, adding that he had helped pull 17 people, including women and children, from the wreckage.
However, “there were many other people trapped inside... we could not get them out,” he added.
Train services from Karachi to the rest of the nation were suspended.
Train accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of kilometers of track and trains from former colonial power Britain.
The network has seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.
Yesterday’s crash was the second this year involving the Fareed Express.
In February, the northbound train hit a van at a crossing in southern Pakistan, killing eight people from the same family.
Railway accidents in Pakistan often take place at the unmanned crossings, which often lack barriers and sometimes signals.
In September, four people were killed and more than 100 injured when two trains collided near Multan.
The accident occurred when the Karachi-bound Awam Express rammed into a goods train that had stopped after running over a man.
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