At least 54 people were killed when an express train derailed in eastern India, sending carriages crashing into a rain-swollen river river.
The air-conditioned
Rajdhani Express
, heading to New Delhi from the eastern city of Calcutta, left the rails on a bridge near the town of Gaya in the eastern state of Bihar late last night.
Fifty bodies have been recovered from the coaches; four people who were swept away by the river have also died, Railways official Mr J.K. Sinha said about 80 others were injured.
Earlier, the junior railway minister, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, said the death toll could be as high as 100. He also claimed the crash was due to an act of sabotage.
The minister said fishplates that bind the tracks together had been removed and that Maoist guerrillas fighting for the rights of peasants in the poverty-stricken Bihar could be to blame.
A railways spokesman said 16 coaches had jumped the tracks and one was in the river. Police and railways officials said one coach was submerged in the river while three were left hanging precariously.
AFP