At least 14 persons were killed and 30 injured when a passenger train rammed into a truck at an unmanned railway crossing 150 km southeast of Lucknow on Sunday.
The Gorakhpur-Ayodhya passenger train at 1.20 pm collided with a truck carrying sand between Tikri Halt and Nawabganj railway stations at Rasulpur in Gonda district, North Eastern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Amit Singh said. He said, “Officials are trying to get details of the mishap.”
Most of the victims were travelling on top of the locomotive of the train. The impact of the collision could be gauged from the fact that the truck was blown into pieces, Singh said.
The injured had been admitted to nearby health centres, he said, adding that senior officials had rushed to the spot.
There was, however, no major damage to the train and it resumed its journey about three hours after the accident.
“It was the speeding truck that hit the train’s locomotive. Three-fourths of the locomotive had gone past when the collision took place,” a railway official said.