KARACHI: At least 30 people were killed and 70 injured on Sunday after a train derailed in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, officials said, fearing the death toll would rise as authorities remained engaged in a rescue operation to save people’s lives.
The incident occurred near Sarhari Railway Station in District Sanghar, approximately 275 kilometers away from Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, when 10 bogies of the Hazara Express train derailed. The train was traveling to Havelian in Abbottabad district in Pakistan’s northwest.
“We can confirm 30 deaths in the tragic accident,” Dr. Abid Sheikh, an official of the Rescue 1122 service, told Arab News. He added that a rescue operation was underway at the site of the accident to save people’s lives.
“We have also rescued over 70 injured,” the official added.
Damaged carriages are pictured following the derailment of a passenger train in Nawabshah, in Pakistan's southern Sindh province on August 6, 2023. (AFP)
Speaking to Arab News, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sanghar Abid Baloch said the death toll may increase as rescue personnel were unable to enter one of the derailed bogies.
“A cutter has been brought in to cut through the wreckage. It’s likely that there may be some dead bodies in this last bogie,” the police officer added.
Train accidents are not uncommon in Pakistan, where a majority of railway tracks date back to the pre-partition British colonial era. Despite several accidents that have claimed hundreds of lives, successive governments have brought about little improvement in the condition of railway tracks and the department in general since their independence in 1947.
On June 7, 2021, a horrific collision occurred near Daharki in Sindh’s Ghotki district, leading to at least 65 people getting killed while 150 others were injured.
On Saturday, another train named Allama Iqbal Express also derailed near Padidan station in Sindh. Passengers on board were able to escape without any loss of life in the incident.
