Death toll in Pakistan train crash rises to 62

The death toll in the collision of two trains in southern Pakistan rose to 62 on Tuesday, while 28 people remain hospitalized, six of them in serious condition.

Mohamed Usman Abdullah, deputy commissioner of Ghotki, the district where the accident occurred yesterday, told Efe that the death toll rose to 62, after the discovery of more bodies throughout the night.

Of the hundred injured in the collision of the two trains, 28 remain hospitalized, six of them in serious condition.

The source indicated that operations to search for bodies continue, but believes that there are “few options” to find more.

The accident occurred early Monday morning when the Millat Express convoy derailed and fell onto another track, causing it to collide with the Sir Syed Express in Ghotki district of Sindh province.

The Government and the Army launched a major rescue operation, with dozens of people trapped in the wreckage of the trains.

The remote location of the place of the accident has made these rescue operations difficult, due to the obstacles to take heavy machinery there to open the mess of metal into which several wagons were converted.. The operation continued all night and continues on Tuesday.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered an investigation into the accident immediately.. “I have ordered a deep investigation of the security failures on the railways,” he announced on his Twitter account.

For his part, the president of Pakistan Railways, Habibur Rehman Gilani, acknowledged in an interview on the Geo network that the tracks where the accident occurred were old and needed to be replaced.

In fact, train accidents are frequent in Pakistan, which has an ancient railway network dating back to the days of the British Empire, from which they became independent in 1947.

In July last year at least 19 people were killed and 15 others injured when a train rammed a passenger bus in Punjab province.

In October 2019, a total of 73 people died from the explosion of a gas cylinder that passengers used to prepare breakfast on a train in the south of the country.