Indian train disaster death toll hits 116

At least 116 people were killed and nearly 200 injured when 14 coaches of an express train derailed in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh early today, local media said quoting officials.

The coaches of the Indore (in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh)-Patna (eastern state of Bihar) jumped the track a little after 3 am at Pukhraya, 100 km from Kanpur, when most passengers were sleeping, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

TV footages showed the coaches mangled and rescue workers struggling to slice through crumpled metal to pull out trapped passengers. 

The toll is feared to rise because rescuers have not been able to access one of the derailed coaches.

More bodies were pulled out from the two coaches that fell on the side, said Daljeet Singh Choudhary, a senior police officer. Hours after the crash, a team of army personnel, doctors joined some 250 rescue workers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "anguished beyond words" and added that he had spoken to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu who was monitoring the situation closely.

In tweets, Suresh Prabhu said he had ordered an inquiry and "strictest possible action will be taken against those who could be responsible for the accident.

Though the cause of the derailment is not known as of now, sources said the nature and timing shows that the accident was caused by a rail fracture.

However, the exact reason would be known only after an inquiry, officials said. 

Reuters adds, India's creaking railway system is the world's fourth largest, ferrying more than 20 million people each day, but it has a poor safety record, with thousands of people dying in accidents every year, including in frequent train derailments.

Derailments and accidents have been a frequent occurrence, including an incident in Uttar Pradesh - India's most populous state - in March last year that killed 39 people. Heavy rains in the eastern state of Andhra Pradesh in 2005 caused a train to derail, with some carriages plunging into a river, killing more than 100.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who started out selling tea outside a train station, has promised to modernise India's railways and build high-speed engines befitting Asia's third-largest economy.

By some analyst estimates, the railways need 20 trillion rupees ($293.34 billion) of investment by 2020, and India is turning to partnerships with private companies and seeking loans from other countries to modernise its network.

Last year, Japan agreed to provide $12 billion of soft loans to build India's first bullet train.