In southern Pakistan, train derails, killing at least 28 people

According to the country’s railroads minister, several were hurt when a train from Karachi to Abbottabad crashed in the city of Nawabshah.

The country’s railways minister reported that at least 28 persons were murdered when a train moving from the port city of Karachi in southern Pakistan to Abbottabad derailed in the city of Nawabshah in the Sindh province.

Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique told reporters, “This is quite a big accident.” The information we currently have indicates that 28 passengers have died and numerous others have been injured.

It would be premature to speculate about the accident’s cause, which might have been either a mechanical malfunction or a terrorist attack, according to Rafique.

According to Muqarrab Khan, a local police officer from Sindh’s Sanghar district, there have been about 50 injuries as a result of the mishap.

Eight coaches of the Hazara Express, which was making its way from Karachi to Abbottabad, derailed close to the Sahara train station in Nawabshah, around 275 kilometres (170 miles) from Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, according to Mohsin Syal, a railway officer, who spoke to HUM News.

Several people were killed and numerous more were injured in the disaster, a regional railway official named Ijaz Shah said the AFP news agency without giving a precise number of casualties.

Numerous individuals can be seen at the scene, some breaking windows to assist passengers in exiting the overturned coaches and twisted carriages, according to photos shared by local media.

Ambulances and private cars transported injured people to the Nawabshah Trauma Centre amid chaotic scenes.

While a woman wailed in agony as she was taken in on a stretcher, one man leaped from the back of an ambulance carrying a child, his clothes covered in blood.

One confused woman uttered the words, “We don’t know what happened; we were just sitting inside.”

Numerous vehicles were parked on a road that runs beside the track at the accident scene outside of Nawabshah, including tractors, rickshaws, and motorcycles.

The outdated railway system in Pakistan routinely has accidents and derails. At least 65 people were killed and approximately 150 others were hurt when two trains crashed in June 2021 close to Daharki in Sindh.

A passenger train collided with the wreckage about a minute after an express train involved in the accident overturned into the other track.

near least 75 passengers perished in a fire on the Tezgam express train in October 2019, and more than 100 people perished in a two-train accident near Ghotki in 2005.

INFORMATION: NEWS AGENCIES