15 die as Indian train crashes off bridge

A passenger train jumped the tracks and plunged off a bridge on to a road in southern India today killing at least 15 people …

A passenger train jumped the tracks and plunged off a bridge on to a road in southern India today killing at least 15 people and seriously injuring 21, police said.

Rescuers were still cutting open the mangled wreckage to free several passengers trapped hours after the crash, about 145 km (90 miles) northeast of the Andhra Pradesh state capital, Hyderabad.

The Guntur-Hyderabad Golconda Express was nearing Warangal station when the engine and two coaches jumped the tracks at about and fell on to a road below, crushing some vehicles.

Nine passengers and six people on the road were killed. Five of the bodies are still trapped under the engine, police said.

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The cause was not immediately known, but some witnesses said the brakes had appeared to fail.

The crash came less than two weeks after 51 people died in western India when a train crashed outside a tunnel entrance after hitting boulders that had fallen in a landslide.

India has one of the world's largest railway networks, with almost 14,000 trains carrying more than 13 million passengers a day. But its safety record is poor, with about 300 accidents a year.