Dozens Killed In Pakistan’s Train Crash
MEP: At least 17 people have died and another 40 have been injured when two trains collided in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Thursday, local media said.
The trains were reportedly carrying hundreds of passengers when the accident occurred.
“At the moment, we don’t know the exact number of casualties, but there could be up to 1,000 passengers in both trains,” Nasir Nazeer, District Coordination Officer (DCO) in Karachi told the AFP news agency.
Initial reports said that one of the trains had been given the wrong signal and at least two carriages had overturned following the crash.
Train traffic between Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, and the rest of the country was suspended after the collision near the city’s Landi Railway Station, television news channels reported.
Television footage at the crash site showed mangled, overturned carriages as well as rescuers using metal-cutting equipment and heavy cranes to reach trapped passengers.
Train accidents are common in Pakistan, whose extensive colonial-era railway network has suffered from decades of decline.
In September, at least four people were killed and over 100 injured when an express train collided with a freight train near the city of Multan in Punjab province.
