India train crash: At least 288 people dead and hundreds injured in collision in Odisha
At least 288 people have been killed after at least two trains were involved in a crash in eastern India.
The collision happened about 130 miles southwest of Kolkata in Odisha’s Balasore district at around 7pm local time (2.30pm UK) on Friday.
It is the country’s deadliest rail accident in more than two decades.
Pictures from the morning after the accident
Rescue workers search for survivors
‘A lot of serious injuries’
Between 10 and 12 carriages of one train derailed and debris fell on to a nearby track, according to railroad ministry spokesperson Amitabh Sharma.
The debris was hit by another passenger train coming from the opposite direction, and up to three carriages from that train also derailed, Mr Sharma said.
Fire services chief Sudhanshu Sarangi told the Press Trust of India that more than 850 people were injured.
There are “a lot of serious injuries”, he said.
The incident took place in the Balasore district in Odisha state
Army deployed to assist evacuation
The Press Trust also said a third train carrying freight was involved, but railway authorities did not confirm this.
The cause of the crash is being investigated, with police among the emergency services deployed.
Chief secretary Pradeep Jena said on Twitter that there were also more than 200 ambulances sent to the scene.
Reuters video footage showed police moving bodies covered in white cloths off the railway tracks.
On Saturday morning, the army was deployed to assist in the evacuation and treatment of those injured.
A drone view shows the derailed coaches
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “distressed” by the accident and confirmed that rescue operations are under way at the site.
He said on Twitter that “all possible assistance” was being offered, adding: “May the injured recover soon.”
Hospitals on high alert
Rescuers were still desperately attempting to free hundreds of people feared trapped in the derailed carriages as of Saturday morning, said D B Shinde, the Balasore district administrator in Odisha state.
Speaking from India, Sky reporter Neville Lazarus said all hospitals in the Balasore district are on high alert.
He said the trains involved run along “one of the main artery tracks” of the eastern side of the country’s rail network.
Pic: Press Trust of India/AP
Survivors feel lucky to be alive
Passenger Vandana Kaleda told the New Delhi Television news channel she “found people falling on each other” as her carriage shook violently and veered off the tracks. She said she was lucky to survive.
Another survivor, who did not give his name, said he was sleeping when the impact of the crash woke him up.
“I was woken up by the noise of the train derailing,” he said.
“Suddenly I saw 10 to 15 people dead.
“I managed to come out of the coach, and then I saw a lot of dismembered bodies.”
Pic: Press Trust of India via AP
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, travelling on 40,000 miles of track.
Despite government efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India’s railways, the largest train network under one management in the world.
More than 350 people were killed when two trains collided near New Delhi in August 1995 – the worst train accident in India’s history.
Most train accidents are blamed on human error or outdated signalling equipment.
Katy Perry has blasted off to space along with five other women in the first all-female space crew in over sixty years.
The Firework singer lifted off from West Texas on a Blue Origin rocket before becoming the first artist to sing in space.
Flying alongside Perry were author Lauren Sanchez, the fiancee of Blue Origin owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, journalist and TV presenter Gayle King, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn.
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What happened in Blue Origin all-female space flight
The star-studded crew were supported on the ground by family and friends including Kris Jenner, Khloe Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey, who said she had “never been more proud” of her friend, King.
“There’s only one time all the women are going up for the first time,” Oprah said she told her friend when urging her to go on the flight, telling her she’d regret turning down the opportunity.
(Seated left to right) Lauren Sanchez and Kerianne Flynn, (standing left to right) Amanda Nguyen, Katy Perry, Gayle King and Aisha Bowe. Pic: Blue Origin
Katy Perry rings a symbolic bell before boarding the New Shepard rocket. Pic: Blue Origin
Weightlessness
The crew were weightless for just four minutes after passing the Karman line, a 62-mile-high boundary that is internationally recognised as the boundary of space.
Pic: Blue Origin
They could be heard screaming as they began to feel weightless, and told each other to look at the incredible views of the moon.
As the crew were leaving space, Perry started to sing What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.
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‘I feel super-connected to love’
Asked why she chose that song, she said: “It’s not about me or about me singing my songs, it was about a collective energy in there.
“It’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it.”
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Kardashians share support for all-female crew
She confirmed she will be writing a song about the experience.
Katy Perry kisses the ground after the flight. Pic: Blue Origin
The descent
Three parachutes on their capsule opened up to bring them safely back down to Earth and just before they landed, an air cushion blew a cloud of dust up in the west Texas desert, giving a dramatic-looking touchdown.
Pic: Blue Origin
Pic: Blue Origin
“Excited as I am, I’ll be very glad when we come back down,” said self-confessed nervous flier King before liftoff.
When she exited the shuttle, the presenter kissed the floor and said: “Thank you, Jesus”.
She said it was “oddly quiet” in space, and it reminded her that people needed to “do better and be better” on Earth.
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“It was the most incredible experience of my life to be up there and see such vast darkness in space and look down on our planet,” said Flynn, through tears.
“The moon was so beautiful and I feel like that was a special gift just for me,” she said.
Donald Trump has suggested “homegrown criminals” in the US could be deported to jails in El Salvador – saying the US attorney general is “studying the laws right now”.
He made the comment while speaking alongside the Central American nation’s president, Nayib Bukele, in the White House.
The Trump administration has sent hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador, since March.
When asked about the deportations – which were briefly blocked by a US court last month – Mr Trump said: “I’d like to go a step further.
“We also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, hit elderly ladies on the back of the head when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters.
“I’d like to include them in people to get out of the country.”
Pic: Reuters
When pressed on the matter by a reporter, he replied: “They’re as bad as anybody that comes in. We have bad ones too. I’m all for it.”
US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was present at the meeting, is “studying the laws right now”, the US president added.
“If we can do that, that’s good,” he said. “I’m talking about violent people, really bad people.
“We can do things with the president [of El Salvador] for less money and have great security. He does a great job with that. We have other we’re negotiating with too.”
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The Trump administration has been deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members to the El Salvador jail since mid-March, when the US president signed the Alien Enemies Act.
The law from 1798 has been invoked just three times before, in wartime. It allows the president to detain and deport immigrants living in the US legally if they are from countries seen as “enemies” of the government.
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Lawyers and immigrant rights groups have been unable to contact the men sent to the 40,000 capacity CECOT prison – the largest detention facility in Latin America.
A judge issued a temporary block on the deportations on 17 March, but this was lifted by the Supreme Court last week.
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