BSS
  03 Jun 2023, 12:53
Update : 03 Jun 2023, 23:29

India's worst rail disasters

PARIS, June  3, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The collision between three trains which
has left at least 288 dead and hundreds injured, is one of the deadliest
accidents to befall India's notoriously dangerous rail network.

In the past two decades alone, the country has had at least 13 railway
incidents that have left more than 50 people dead, including three caused by
deliberate attacks.

Prior to Friday's accident, the most recent was in October 2018, when a
speeding train ploughed into a crowd watching fireworks during a Hindu festival
in the northern city of Amritsar, leaving about 60 dead.
Here is a list of India's ten worst train disasters, according to AFP
records:

- 1981, more than 800 killed -

India's deadliest rail accident took place on June, 6, 1981, when a train
derailed while crossing a bridge in eastern Bihar and plunged into the river
below, killing between 800 and 1,000 people.

- 1995, more than 300 killed -

On August 20, 1995, 305 were killed and 344 injured in a collision between
two trains at Ferozabad, near Agra in the north.

- 1999, 285 killed -

On August 2, 1999,  285 people were killed and 312 injured in a collision
between two trains in Gaisal in the eastern state of West Bengal.

- 1998, at least 210 killed -

On November 26, 1998, the Sealdah Express -- travelling in thick mist --
slammed into a train that had derailed in the northern state of Punjab, leaving
at least 210 dead.

- 2006, Islamist attacks kill 186 -

A series of attacks on trains and stations in the Mumbai area leave 186
dead and some 700 wounded on July 11, 2006. India blames Pakistani intelligence
and the Islamist Lashkar-e-Taiba.

- 1956, at least 154 killed -

On November, 23, 1956, a train plunged into the Marudyar river after a
bridge was destroyed by flooding, leaving at least 154 dead and 115 injured.

- 2016, 146 killed -

At least 146 people died when an Indore-Patna Express train with around
2,000 people on board derailed in Uttar Pradesh on November 20, 2016, sending
carriages crashing into each other.

- 2010, 146 killed  -

On May 28, 2010, a train derailed and crashed into a freight train around
135 kilometres (83 miles) west of Calcutta, in the eastern state of Bengal,
killing 146 and injuring over 200. Authorities accuse Maoists rebels of
sabotage.

- 1954, at least 137 killed -

On September 28, 1954, a train travelling between Madras and New Delhi
derailed after the collapse of a bridge, leaving at least 137 people dead and
100 injured.

- 2002, at least 120 killed -

The luxury Rajdhani Express, headed from Calcutta to New Delhi, veered off
its tracks and plunged in the swollen Dhabi river, killing at least 120 people.

Railway authorities said sabotage had caused the crash, without naming culprits.