At least 47 people have been killed in a fire on a passenger train travelling in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, officials say.
The cause of the blaze is still unclear, but authorities suspect an electrical short circuit.
Accidents are common on India's immense state-owned rail network.
In May, 24 people were killed when a passenger train crashed into a goods train, also in Andhra Pradesh state.
Most of the passengers were asleep when the fire broke out at 04:20 local time (22:50 GMT), said B Sridhar, head of Nellore's district administration.
Some of them managed to jump off the moving train before it came to a halt, but 28 passengers in the coach were injured and taken to local hospitals.
The town of Nellore is about 500km (310 miles) south of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh's district capital.
"I woke up after hearing loud screams. All I could see is black smoke," Y Sampath, a software engineer who managed to escape the blaze, told The Hindu newspaper.
He was travelling with his sister, who is missing, the newspaper said.
The affected coach was completely gutted and rescue teams had to break in using special equipment.
Train accidents in India have killed 1,220 people over the past five years, railway officials recently revealed.
India's railway operates 9,000 passenger trains and carries some 18 million passengers every day, connecting every corner of the country.
What we are looking could be our grave yard.Who died are relatives and who made it happen are also our brothers.Once it is over we shall easily forget this without any corrective and preventive measures.
ReplyDeleteAs often is the case Rahul. However, if we do nothing in terms of voicing these issues in the form of calling out these culprits it means we too are at fault. We here at ET6 Nation pray that the families of the victims find comfort in knowing that God watches over them. Thanks for always supporting us and letting your voice be heard. We would love to show our appreciation for your comments by sending you an EPIC Team 6 T-Shirt, if you drop us your address via email detailing shirt style on www.epicteam6.com and shirt size we can get that out to you ASAP. Once again thank you and spread the word of our site.
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