100 injured as Sealdah-Ajmer Express derails near Kanpur

In less than 40 days of a train accident that claimed 152 lives in Pukhrayan near here, another train Ajmer-Sealdah Express went off the tracks, leaving 100 people injured near Roora in Kanpur Dehat on Wednesday morning.

In less than 40 days of a train accident that claimed 152 lives in Pukhrayan near here, another train Ajmer-Sealdah Express went off the tracks, leaving 100 people injured near Roora in Kanpur Dehat on Wednesday morning.

It was the second recent rail accident in the region. In November, 127 people were killed and 150 injured when 14 coaches of a passenger train slid off the tracks. (ANI Photo)

Two of the 15 coaches that derailed ahead of Roora railway station fell about 20 feet below

in a dry canal. The maximum number of critically injured passengers are from coaches S5 and S6.

All the injured were rushed to the district hospital in Mati, Kanpur Dehat, and 17 of them were rushed to LLR hospital in Kanpur where they were in intensive care unit (ICU).

Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav announced financial help of `50,000 to the critically injured passengers and `25,000 to those with minor injuries and

asked authorities to make sure best medical facilities were made available. Railways minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted that he was monitoring the situation and that reasons leading to another derailment will be investigated.

The immediate cause of the derailment could not be known but railway officials suspect either track fracture or decoupling of coaches as possible reasons.

Just 24 hours before the mishap, a railway patrol team had on Tuesday night found a fracture in the tracks a kilometre away where the Indore-Patna Express had met with an accident, leaving 152 dead and more than 100 injured. The same train — Indore-Patna Express — heading for Indore was halted and allowed to pass after 40 minutes.

“A total of 15 coaches derailed in the accident and all the people have been taken out of the coaches; they are being treated at different hospitals,” said Zaki Ahmed, IG, Kanpur zone. He denied any casualty in the derailment. The magnitude of this accident was similar to the November 20 derailment in which 14 coaches jumped track