Indian Train Crash Kills Over 100, 170+ Injured

September 12, 2002

RAFIGANJ, India (AP) _ The death toll from a train derailment in eastern India this week reached 105 people, officials said Wednesday, as rescuers looked for more bodies in the mangled wreck.

At least 92 bodies had been recovered from the Rajdhani Express, which derailed Monday night outside Rafiganj town, said Hem Chand Sirohi, the area administrator. At least 13 others died in the hospital Tuesday, doctors said.

More than 170 people are injured.

Bodies were still being found, Sirohi told The Associated Press. Rescue workers used cranes and blow torches Wednesday to pull out survivors from the mountain of twisted metal.

Investigators were trying to determine why the train derailed. There were conflicting theories, with railroad officials suspecting sabotage by communist rebels and police suspecting faulty maintenance of the bridge.

Army cadets, police and local residents toiled through the night cutting away pieces of twisted metal to reach anyone who could have survived the accident, which occurred when the express train derailed before midnight Monday.

One car fell into the Dhave River, two were left dangling from the bridge and at least three others piled up in a heap.

The train was carrying 535 passengers and 70 railway staff from Calcutta to New Delhi. It was traveling about 80 mph as it approached the British-built bridge near Rafiganj, about 420 miles southeast of New Delhi.

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