Six dead, 92 injured as Awam Express collides with freight train in Multan
Awam Express was going to Peshawar from Karachi when it collided into another train
MULTAN (Dunya News) - Six people died and 92 were injured on Thursday as Awam Express, which departed from Karachi for Peshawar, collided with a cargo train in Multan.
.jpg)
City police officer Muhammad Rizwan said the death toll is feared to rise as 15 among the injured are in critical condition, adding that the passenger train s engine and four compartments derailed in the accident.
He said the passenger train, which was en route to the country’s southern port city of Karachi from northwest Peshawar city, hit into the cargo train, about 15 minutes after leaving the Bucch Railway station in Multan, a district of Punjab province.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Multan Nadir Chattha, cargo train was forced to stop on the track after it overran a man who committed suicide when the passenger train, coming from the same direction, collided with it.
The injured are being shifted to various hospitals of the city by rescue teams. Meanwhile, local railway authorities have arranged another train to take the survived passengers to their destination in Karachi.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed sorrow over the deaths and directed hospital authorities to provide best possible medical treatment to the injured people.
Railway official Saima Bashir blamed the accident on the passenger train driver, saying he failed to heed a red signal that went up after the goods train had stopped.
Cranes and ambulances filled the area as troops also raced to the scene to help.
Train accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of miles (kilometres) of track and trains from former colonial power, Britain.
The railways have seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.
Last November, 19 people were killed in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province after a train’s brakes failed and it sped down the side of a mountain.
In July 2015, at least 17 people were killed when a special military train fell into a canal after a bridge partially collapsed.
--- with inputs from AFP
