Death toll rises to 146 in train crash in India
PUKHRAYAN, India — The death toll from India’s worst train accident in years rose to 146 on Monday after rescuers used cranes to lift the last of the twisted metal wreckage to check for bodies underneath.
About 2,000 workers were clearing the tracks and checking for damage to the rail line in hopes of resuming traffic through one of India’s busiest railway junctions.
Rescue workers, soldiers and members of India’s disaster management force pulled out people trapped inside the twisted metal and overturned coaches near Pukhrayan, a village outside Kanpur 250 miles southeast of New Delhi.
At the accident site, some sifted through torn and broken luggage scattered across the ground in hopes of finding clues to where someone might have been at the time of the crash.
Some railway officials told local media they suspected faulty tracks caused the derailment.
While accidents are relatively common on India’s sprawling rail network, the derailment of the Patna-Indore Express Train was among India’s deadliest in at least five years.