Sealdah-Ajmer Exp derails near Kanpur, 62 injured

At least 62 passengers were on Wednesday injured when 15 coaches of the Sealdah-Ajmer Express derailed while it was crossing a bridge near Rura Railway Station in Kanpur Rural district, the second rail accident in the region in two months.

The accident occurred at 5.30 am when 13 sleeper coaches and two general compartments of the Ajmer-bound train ‘12987’ from Sealdah in West Bengal jumped the track on the bridge over a dry canal nearly 70 km from here, North Central Railways PRO Amit Malviya said.

Two of the coaches fell into the canal but as there was not much water, it prevented a major calamity, he said, adding bogies starting from the sixth one from the engine were affected.

42 of the injured were admitted at Mati district hospital in Kanpur (Rural), while 20 seriously injured were undergoing treatment at the Hallet hospital including a six-year-old girl, identified as Shreya, who had suffered head injuries, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Ramayan Prasad said.

While soon after the mishap IG (Kanpur range) Zaki Ahmed said two of the seriously injured passengers had died, General Manager, North Central Railway, Arun Saxena as well as the CMO said there has no information of any death. Rescue operations are over with all passengers pulled out of the derailed coaches, Malviya said, adding the cause of the accident was not immediately known.