Television images from the scene show destroyed carriages, twisted metal and a large number of passengers lying next to the accident site in the state of Odisha, writes NTB. – The first priority now is to rescue the passengers and provide health care to the injured, said Pradeep Jena, head of the state administration in Odisha. The number of confirmed dead has increased throughout the evening, and on the night of Saturday local time 120 have died, according to the AFP news agency. Over 850 have been injured and taken to hospital, – There is blood and people dying around me, says an eyewitness to Reuters. Trapped passengers After the accident, rescue crews worked to get out several hundred people who were stuck in the wreckage of the train carriages, says district manager Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde from Balasore. Between ten and twelve train carriages derailed in the accident, and wreckage ended up on a track next to it, says a spokesperson for the Ministry of Railways to the AP news agency. Another passenger train, coming from the opposite direction, ran into the wreckage, and up to three carriages from this train also derailed. Pictures from the scene of the accident show people climbing on the wreckage in the hope of rescuing the injured. Freight train also involved A freight train was also involved in the incident, says Amitabh Sharma of Indian Railways to AFP. This train was parked at the scene of the accident. Almost 500 police officers and rescue teams, as well as 75 ambulances and buses, have taken part in the rescue effort, according to Pradeep Jena. The Indian railway network is the largest in the world under one central management. Every day, about 12 million Indians take the train, writes NTB. Several hundred train accidents occur in India every year, and many of them are due to old signaling systems or human error. In recent years, major new investments have contributed to improving the safety of train traffic in India.
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