Odisha train accident – latest: Locals saved over 1,000 lives after crash, says chief minister

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik praised local residents for saving over 1,000 lives as they swung into action immediately to help passengers following the fatal train accident on Friday.

People providing support to rescue operations and the long queues for blood donation are "sights rare but invaluable", he said on Tuesday.

"Doctors, medical students, general public, and all had one thing in mind – let's save [lives], as many as we can. And we have saved more than a thousand lives,” Mr Patnaik said, adding: "I am proud of my people. I am proud of Odisha."

The death toll from the three-train crash was raised again to 288 on Tuesday, state chief secretary PK Jena said.

At least 205 bodies have been identified so far and handed over to their families, he added.

Meanwhile, a railways official who was part of the five-member inquiry committee which conducted a preliminary investigation has publicly disagreed with its findings.

Senior section engineer AK Mahanta was among the committee that conducted a spot inquiry that concluded that a signalling error had caused the accident.

Key Points

• ‘We saw bodies without heads, severed arms and legs,’ says first responder

• Train crash death toll at 288

• North Korea sends ‘message of sympathy’ to India’s Modi

• Odisha chief minister says locals saved over 1,000 lives

• Railways probe panel member disagrees with preliminary findings

• Deliberate interference’ caused deadly train accident, railway officials say

Families of victims speak out after collision claims 288 lives

12:13 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Father saves son who was declared dead

10:30 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

A father who refused to believe that his son died in the deadly three-train collision in India ended up saving his life after discovering that the severely injured man was sent along with with a pile of dead bodies to a makeshift morgue.

When Helaram Malik took the 230km-long journey from his hometown in Kolkata, West Bengal, to Odisha’s Balasore district, he was told that his son Biswajit Malik was one of the 288 fatalities of the deadliest accident the country has witnessed in a century.

Mr Malik, who runs a small shop in West Bengal’s Howrah, last spoke to his son immediately after the crash when he said that he was severely injured. He said his son’s voice was feeble and he appeared to be in pain.

Upon reaching Balasore with his brother-in-law on the night of the accident, Mr Malik could not find his son in the hospitals where all the injured victims were taken for treatment.

Shweta Sharma has more.

Father saves son’s life who was given up for dead in Odisha train crash

Trains arrive and pass through Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha

10:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Over 40 people from Bihar killed in Odisha train mishap

09:30 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

At least 43 people who died in the fatal train collapse in Odisha were from the neighbouring state of Bihar, that state’s disaster management minister Shahnawaz Alam said on Wednesday.

Nearly 44 people were injured and 88 people are still missing, he added.

‘Suddenly everything went silent. And then there were screams’: Survivors recall horror

09:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Anwar Sheikh, 35, was on the Howrah Yesvantpur Express when the crash took place. He had found a spot on the floor to sleep when a loud noise pierced through the air.

“Suddenly everything went silent,” he recalled. “And then a minute later there were screams.”He was pulled out of the coach and taken to the hospital as he bled through multiple places in his body.

Read more here.

Train crash survivor: ‘Suddenly everything went silent. And then there were screams’

North Korea sends ‘message of sympathy’ to India’s Modi

08:30 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

North Korea sent a “message of sympathy” to India’s prime minister Narendra Modi yesterday following the country’s deadliest train crash of the century that killed 288 people.

“Kim Tok Hun, premier of the Cabinet of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, sent a message of sympathy ... as regards the train accident in Odisha of India that claimed many casualties,” Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

“The Korean people are sharing that difficult moment with Indian people,” the message said, according to KCNA.

“And it expressed conviction that the Indian government will remove the aftereffects of the accident and stabilise the life of the victims and bereaved families at an early date.”

Injured Nepal teenager reunited with family

08:05 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

A 15-year-old Nepali boy, who survived the triple train crash in Odisha, was reunited with his family yesterday.

The minor was travelling with three others from Nepal on the ill-fated Coromandel Express which derailed on Friday. While three of his fellow travellers died, the teenager survived.

Woman booked for ‘declaring husband dead’ for compensation

07:45 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

A woman in Odisha has allegedly declared her husband “dead” in order to claim the compensation amount of Rs500,000 given by the state government to the families of the train crash victims.

The incident came to light after her husband lodged a written police complaint, local channel OdishaTV reported.

The woman has allegedly gone into hiding.

Chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena asked the railways and Odisha police to take stringent action against such fake claimants. “All should be very careful in this regard and take prompt as well as stern action in such cases,” Mr Jena tweeted.

‘We saw bodies without heads, severed arms and legs,’ says first responder

07:14 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Ashish Patnaik heard the crash clearly despite being at a friend’s house about 1km away. They rushed towards the noise and were greeted by the unfolding tragedy. “We saw bodies without heads, severed feet and arms,” Mr Patnaik recalls, his eyes swelling with tears.

Kartik Chandra, who lives 2km from the crash site, heard about it from a local news channel’s notification on his phone. He criticised the government’s handling of the country’s vast nationalised rail network, which caters to upwards of 14,000 trains every day. “The government cannot even take care of regular trains, but they want to introduce bullet trains,” he said. “Will they fly?”

Read more here.

Anger grows as 100 bodies from Odisha train crash remain unclaimed

Local resident demand compensation for destroyed farmland

07:06 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

A local resident of Bahanaga has asked the federal government to compensate for the farmland that was destroyed following the train crash that killed at least 288 people.

“After the crash took place, the bodies were brought out and kept on both sides of the track, which are farmlands,” he told local reporters in Odia language.

“The properties around the track were also used by the government to conduct restoration work.

“We won’t be able to cultivate crops on the destroyed land this year. The rail coaches are still lying on our land.

“We want the government to compensate us for the destroyed crops.”

Railways probe panel member disagrees with preliminary findings

06:18 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

A railways official who was part of the five-member inquiry committee which conducted a preliminary investigation has disagreed with its findings.

Senior section engineer AK Mahanta was among the committee that conducted a spot inquiry that concluded that a signalling error had caused the accident.

However, in his one-page dissenting note, he referred to a “datalogger report” to claim that the signal was green for the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express to take the main line and not the loop line.

The powerful triple collision took place on Friday after the high-speed passenger train packed with commuters was wrongly directed to a loop track where a freight train was already stationed, railway officials said, citing the preliminary report.“I did not agree ... which mentions that point No. 174 was found set for Up Loop line,” Mr Mahanta said.

Based on the observation from the datalogger report, point 17 was set for the normal side(main line), he continued.

“It may be reverse after the derailment,” he added, potentially hinting at a cover-up.

He claimed that the derailment occurred ahead of the level crossing gate, suggesting that the incident took place before the train switched to the loop line.

Deliberate interference’ caused deadly train accident, railway officials say

05:40 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

India’s deadliest train crash this century was caused by “deliberate interference” with a “fail-proof” electronic system, according to the country’s railway officials.

A probe into the accident was handed to the country’s premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which will examine if the derailment happened from criminal negligence or sabotage.

Top railways officials claim there is clear evidence of deliberate tampering with the electronic signalling system.

A preliminary investigation by India’s railways ministry identified “signal failure” as the root cause of the accident.

Ministry officials conducting the initial probe spoke anonymously to the Times of India and found “deliberate interference” with the interlocking system operated from a cabin at the Bahanaga Bazar station that oversees the stretch of track.

Shweta Sharma reports.

Officials say ‘deliberate interference’ caused India’s worst train crash this century

All unclaimed bodies moved to AIIMS hospital in Bhubaneswar

05:19 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

All the unidentified bodies have been moved to the AIIMS hospital in Bhubaneswar, East Coast Railway announced on Wednesday.

Over 80 bodies are yet to be identified, officials said.

A helpdesk has been established at the hospital to help the relatives of the victims, while the state forensic laboratory conducts DNA tests on those claiming to identify the severely mutilated bodies.

Odisha chief minister says locals saved over 1,000 lives

05:12 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said locals were the first responders who swung into action immediately after the crash and saved over 1,000 lives.

People providing support to rescue operations and the long queues for blood donation are “sights rare but invaluable”, he said.

“Doctors, medical students, general public, and all had one thing in mind – let’s save [lives], as many as we can. And we have saved more than a thousand lives,” Mr Patnaik said, adding: “I am proud of my people. I am proud of Odisha.”

Mr Patnaik sanctioned Rs195m (£190,133) for compensation payment to the families of 39 dead persons from Odisha.

Death toll raised to 288 again

05:02 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

The death toll in the fatal Odisha train crash was revised for the fourth time on Tuesday.

Odisha chief secretary PK Jena said after the verification of bodies, the toll was raised to 288.

At least 205 bodies have been identified and handed over to their families, Mr Jena told reporters.

04:39 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Welcome to The Independent’s live blog tracking the developments in the aftermath of India’s most fatal rail accident in decades.