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Railway officials said that at least 63 people were killed in a train collision in a remote area of southern Sindh province on Monday.
Pakistani railway officials said that at least 63 people were killed in a train collision in a remote area of southern Sindh province on Monday.
According to Agence France-Presse, officials released two lists of victims on Tuesday, including 12 unidentified people. Some people said the death toll may rise further.
The deceased ranged from a few months old baby to an 81-year-old woman.
“We are worried that more people may die,” Usman Abdullah, deputy director of the Gotki district, said on Tuesday.
On Monday morning, a collision occurred near the town of Dharki in Ghotki, about 440 kilometers (273 miles) north of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people.
“Some injured people are in critical condition,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah said that the Mira Express derailed at dawn on Monday, and the Sir Said Express train hit it a few minutes later. The two trains carried more than 1,000 passengers.
The reason for the initial derailment is unclear.
“This is the worst accident I have seen in about 10 years of service,” railway engineer Jahan Zeb told AFP, his eyes were swollen from lack of sleep.
Heavy machinery came to cut some cars, and more than 15 hours after the accident, rescuers carefully cleared the wreckage, looking for people who might still be trapped-although the hopes of the survivors were fading.
The Pakistani military has deployed troops, engineers and helicopters to provide assistance.
The spokesperson of the state-owned railway operator Syed Ijazul Hassan said that the search for survivors and bodies in the wreckage has been completed and the track will be reopened today.
Fatal train accidents are common in Pakistan, and the tracks laid during the British colonial rule few decades ago have rarely been upgraded.
It is not clear what caused the Milat Express to jump, but Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid (former Minister of Railways) called the line “a mess,” while current Minister Azam Swati called it ” very dangerous”.
Habibull Rahman Gilani, chairman of Pakistan Railways, told Pakistan Geographic News that the section of the rail where the crash occurred was very old and needed to be replaced. He did not elaborate.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed deep grief over the tragedy on Monday and ordered an investigation into the “railway safety fault line”.
In 1990, a passenger crashed into a standing freight train in southern Pakistan, killing 210 people. This was the worst railway disaster in the country’s history.
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