18 killed in Indian train crash

Eighteen people were killed and more than 50 injured Friday when a passenger train collided with a goods train in western India, a railway official said. "All bodies have been recovered from the derailed coaches and the death toll is at 18," P.B. Murthy, regional railway manager, south central railways told AFP.

He said that 11 of the injured were in a serious condition. The crash happened in the early morning outside Ghatnandur station in the Beed district of Maharashtra state, 300 km east of Mumbai, the state capital

The express train which was heading to Manmad in Maharashtra from Secunderabad in the neigh bouring state of Andhra Pradesh, crashed into a stationary goods train which was on the same track and at least three carriages of the passenger train derailed. Describing the accident, another railway official said three coaches of the train as well as the engine jumped tracks after the collision with the goods train.

"The toll could have been higher, but fortunately the situation seems to be under control now," he added.

Murthy said a relief operation was still continuing with the authorities working on clearing the tracks.

"The derailed coaches are being removed from the accident site. We are bringing the network back on track as soon as possible," he said.

Railways Minister Nitish Kumar blamed the accident on human error.

"It was a human failure as the point was not set for the train which went ahead on the same track where another train was already stationed," Kumar said in New Delhi.

The minister said the injured had been taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Parli.

He announced a relief package and compensation for the victims and their families.

A special train to transport the surviving passengers of the train was on its way to the scene of the accident, while a team of railway officials and experts had already arrived at the site, south central railways assistant commercial manager Satyam Babu told AFP.

A central railway spokesman at Bombay said enquiry counters had been opened at Manmad, where the train was to have terminated.

Friday's accident was the second train crash in India in two weeks.

On December 21, twenty passengers were killed and 90 injured after nine carriages of the Kachiguda-Bangalore Express derailed in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Regional police blamed the derailment on sabotage.