1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Deadly Pakistan train accident

September 15, 2016

At least six people were killed when a passenger train collided with a freight train in Pakistan. The death toll is expected to rise.

https://p.dw.com/p/1K2oN
Train crach near Multan, Pakistan
Image: ReutersK. Chaudry

More than 100 people were injured on Thursday when the Karachi-bound "Awami Express" passenger train rammed into a stationary goods train.

The accident occurred around 2:30 a.m. local time (2230 UTC) near the central Pakistan city of Multan. TV footage showed rescue officials working around heavily damaged carriages in the darkness.

Railway official Saima Bashir said that the freight train had stopped so its driver could remove the body of a man who had been crushed to death while crossing the railway track. The passenger train then apparently hit the freight train from behind.

"The driver of the passenger train did not see the red signal which went up after the man was crushed to death by the freight train," she said.

"At least four people have been killed and scores others wounded," local district administration official Nadir Chattha told reporters on the scene, adding that several passengers were still trapped.

Train accidents all too common

Following the final day of the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, many people on the train were returning from their rural family homes to their urban dwellings when the accident occurred.

Train accidents are frequent in Pakistan, as the country's railways have witnessed decades of decline on account of a lack of investment, poor maintenance as well as widespread corruption.

In November 2015, 19 people were killed in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province after a train's brakes failed, resulting in it speeding 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.

ss/kms (AFP, AP)