Lucknow: Three passengers, including a six-year-old boy and his father, died and a dozen suffered injuries when 13 bogies of a Patna-bound express train derailed early on Friday, minutes after leaving a station in Uttar Pradesh's Chitrakoot district.
The casualties were not heavy because the Vasco Da Gama Express was moving slowly as it had just left the platform at Manikpur station at 4.18am.
According to additional director-general of police (law and order) Anand Kumar, prima facie a fractured railway track appears to have caused the accident.
"The initial probe suggests there was a fracture in the track, which widened because of the train's pressure. Some passengers said the emergency brakes were applied and the rear bogies derailed. More details will be available after a thorough probe by the railways," Kumar said. The officer said the anti-terrorist squad had been sent to probe the possibility of sabotage.
Pratap Gopendra Singh, the Chitrakoot superintendent of police, said the deceased had been identified as Golu Kumar, 6, his father Deepak Kumar Patel, 30, and Manoj Singh, 23. Deepak and Golu were residents of Amarsekh village in Bihar's Bettiah district. Manoj hailed from Bareli Tola in Chhapra town. All three were in the S3 coach.
The railway ministry has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh each to those grievously injured and Rs 50,000 each to those with minor injuries.
The Uttar Pradesh government has announced an additional compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of each of the dead, Rs 50,000 each to the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 each to those with minor injuries.
Amit Malviya, the public relations officer of North-Central Railway, said rescue teams reached the accident site at 5.20am and the passengers were accommodated in another train.
"The seriously injured passengers have been admitted to the medical college in Allahabad. The others are being treated at government hospitals in Chitrakoot and Banda," he said.
The derailed coaches are from S3 to S11, plus two extra sleeper coaches and two general compartments. The engine and the first seven bogies were not affected.
Raj Kumar Das, a resident of Vaishali district in Bihar, said: "There was a deafening sound for about a minute before my coach jumped tracks. My head banged against the roof and I fell unconscious."
Das is under treatment at the Manikpur community health centre.
The Chitrakoot derailment came less than 12 hours after a passenger train hit a vehicle near Amethi, killing four and injuring as many.
Several trains have derailed in the past 12 months. In August, 23 passengers were killed and 150 injured when the Utkal-Kalinga Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh. A crash near Kanpur last November had killed 150 people.
