At least 20 people were killed yesterday when a passenger train hit boulders on a bridge and jumped the tracks in western India, the railway minister said. At least 50 passengers were hospitalized with injuries.
The locomotive of the Bombay-bound Matsyagandha Express derailed and fell off the bridge and two of the train's eight coaches were hanging precariously in the Raigad district of Maharashtra state, spokeswoman Vaishali Patange said.
At least 20 people were killed, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav said.
Earlier, Patange said 12 bodies had been recovered from the two hanging coaches.
The rail track slices through hills on both sides. Boulders had streamed onto the tracks from a nearby cliff following heavy monsoon rains, the railway minister said.
The accident took place nearly 200km south of Mumbai, the capital of western Maharashtra state and India's commercial hub.
A similar derailment in the region in June last year killed 51 passengers -- the first accident since the 760km rail line was built to link Bombay with tourist destinations of Goa and Mangalore in 1998.
The route is considered one of India's most scenic railroad journeys. It cuts through hills and rivers along the western coast and has 91 tunnels between Mumbai and Mangalore.
Ajit Gawli, medical superintendent of a government-run hospital in Mahad, a town 20km west of the accident site, said 20 people had died and at least 50 others were hospitalized with injuries. Three of the injured were in serious condition with fractures and chest injuries. He said six of those killed were young children.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
RSS