Train mows down devotees
A speeding train ran over a crowd watching fireworks during a religious festival in northern India yesterday, killing at least 60 people and injuring dozens more, police said.
The train failed to stop after the accident on the outskirts of the city of Amritsar in Punjab state, said the state governing Congress party politician, Pratap Singh Bajwa.
The Press Trust of India news agency said two trains arrived from the opposite direction on separate tracks at the same time, giving little opportunity for people to escape. However, the casualties were caused by only one of the trains, it quoted officials as saying.
A witness said the train didn’t even sound its whistle as it sped past the site, where hundreds were watching the burning of an effigy of the demon Ravana during the Hindu festival of Dussehra.
‘‘Why did authorities allow the fireworks display so close to the railroad track?,’’ he asked. He told the Republic television channel that he had lost two brothers.
Another witness said the victims didn’t realise that a train was coming because the fireworks were too loud.
Navjot Kaur Siddhu, a local Congress party politician who was the chief guest at the religious function, said the celebrations took place in the area every year, and railway authorities were alerted to run the trains at slow speeds.
Junior Railways Minister Manoj Sinha said after visiting the accident site that festival organisers did not alert railway authorities about their plan to hold a religious function there.
Shatrughan Das, an injured 35-year-old factory worker, said he was sitting close to the railway tracks watching the fireworks.
‘‘I didn’t see the train coming. I fell unconscious. I saw the police taking me to a hospital as I regained consciousness,’’ Das said from his hospital bed.
‘‘But I don’t have serious injuries.’’
Following the accident, people rushed to the site about 460km north of the capital, New Delhi, and shouted at railway officials for not taking precautions.
At least 50 injured were admitted to a government-run hospital, the Press Trust of India said. –AP