Indian train inferno kills 26

Indian rescue personnel attempt to extinguish fire in a burning carriage of the Nanded-Bangalore Express near Puttapartihi in Ananthpur District some 300kms south of Hyderabad early yesterday, after a fire engulfed the train. Photo: AFP

Fire raced through an Indian train carriage packed with sleeping passengers yesterday, killing at least 26 people, and forcing terrified passengers to smash windows in a frantic bid to escape.
Some passengers were able to break the toilet windows of the train, but other victims were overcome by the thick, swirling smoke and bodies were found heaped at the windows and doors, reports said.
Rescue officials said many bodies were charred beyond recognition and would have to undergo DNA tests to determine their identity.
There were conflicting reports about the number aboard with police saying 65 while national Railways Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said there were 67 people in the carriage, sleeping six to a compartment.
Kharge told AFP the blaze was believed to have been caused by an electricity fault.
Forensic teams were on their way to the train site to collect body samples for analysis, The Press Trust of India reported.
Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh expressed "shock and grief at the loss of life in the train accident in Andhra Pradesh" in a statement on his official Twitter account,
The coach caught fire in the pre-dawn hours as it travelled from the high-tech city of Bangalore to Nanded, 300 kilometers from the Hyderabad city.
Two of those who died were children, railway officials said.
The exit doors of Indian trains are customarily locked at night, reports said, while the carriage windows are covered with bars, making escape all but impossible.
The toilet windows are the only ones that have no bars and the spaces and berths are narrow.
The tragedy comes a little over a year after another train accident in the same state of Andhra Pradesh killed 32 people and shone the spotlight again on the Indian rail network's dismal safety record.