288 people reported dead in rail accident in India

Kathmandu: At least 288 people were killed and more than 800 injured in Friday’s incident in Odisha state, involving two passenger trains and a goods train.

Rescue efforts have concluded, with officials saying all trapped and injured passengers have been retrieved, as reported by the BBC.

People found guilty over a deadly rail accident in eastern India will be “punished stringently”, the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said.

Modi has visited the scene, labelling the incident a “painful” one.

He also met victims of the disaster in hospital, and vowed that his government would leave “no stone unturned for the treatment of those injured”.

It is still not clear what caused the multi-train collision in Balasore district, which has been described as India’s worst rail accident this century.

Some 2,000 passengers are thought to have been on board the two passenger trains involved.

The exact sequence of events has been the subject of conflicting accounts.

Officials say several carriages from the Coromandel Express, travelling between Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Chennai (formerly Madras), derailed at about 19:00 (13:30 GMT) after hitting a stationary goods train.

Several of its coaches ended up on the opposite track. Another train travelling in the opposite direction – the Howrah Superfast Express travelling from Yesvantpur to Howrah – was in a collision with derailed carriages.