One of the deadliest train accidents took place in India's Odisha state on Friday evening; at least 280 people died, while more than 900 were injured.
A rescue operation was undertaken immediately.
The Federal Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnavinitiated ordered a high-level probe of the tragic incident, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the injured in Cuttack.
Media reports citing sources have said that the root cause of the train crash has been identified as the malfunctioning of the signaling system.
Sputnik lists the deadliest train accidents to have hit the country, so as to highlight the need to improve railway safety.
1. Bihar Train Derailment
The tragic June 6, 1981 incident had reportedly been the deadliest train accident in Indian history until this past week.
The local train carrying over 800 passengers got derailed and fell into the Bagmati river between Mansi and Saharsa in the state.
According to media reports, 500 to 800 people died in the incident. A rescue operation went on for six days and on June 12 the government issued n official death toll of 235 passengers. The cause of the accident remains unknown.
2. Peruman Train Collision
India witnessed another deadly train accident on July 8, 1988, when 10 cars of the Island Express going to Thiruvananthapuram from Bengaluru (then Bangalore) became derailed and fell from the Peruman bridge in the Asthamudi lake in Kerala.
At least 105 passengers were killed in the accident. The cause of the accident is not known but some media reports suggest that the incident happened due to track alignment and faulty wheels.
3. Firozabad Train Collision
On August 20, 1995 at least 358 people died after a collision between the Purushottam Express and the Kalindi Express near Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh.
The accident happened after the Kalindi Express had to stop when it hit a Nilgai (the largest antelope in Asia) and was itself hit by the Purushottam Express from behind. The incident happened at about 3 a.m. (IST) when 2,200 passengers in total in two trains were mostly sleeping.
4. Gaisal Train Disaster
At least 290 passengers aboard the Avadh Assam Express and the Brahmaputra Mail were killed when the trains collided on August 2, 1999.
The trains collided head-on due to a signaling error. According to media reports, the trains were using the same track as the other tracks were closed for maintenance. Around 2,500 passengers were travelling in both trains; in addition to 290 deaths, more than 300 passengers were injured, according to official data.
5. Khanna Rail Crash
The collision between the Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express and Frontier Mail train claimed the lives of at least 212 passengers on November 26, 1998.
The accident happened after the Calcutta-bound Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express collided with six derailed Frontier Mail coaches. According to media reports, the initial derailment of coaches was due to a broken railway track.
6. Rafiganj Train Disaster
On September 10, 2002, at least 130 people died when the Howrah Rajdhani Express got derailed near Rafiganj in Gaya city of Bihar and some of its coaches fell into the Dhave river. More than 150 people were injured.
The accident happened because 15 out of 18 coaches of the train derailed and fell across the tracks while two of them tumbled into the river. The probe found out that it happened as the Maoists (Naxalites) had removed the “fish plates” used to anchor the rails to the bridge.
7. Valigonda Train Derailment
The Delta Fast Passenger train passing near Valigonda, a town in Andhra Pradesh, got derailed after the bridge underneath was swept away by a flash flood on October 29, 2005.
According to media reports, at least 114 people died in the accident and more than 200 were injured.
8. Jnaneswari Express Derailment
The Jnaneswari Express train got derailed at around 1 a.m. (IST) on May 28, 2010 in the Midnapore district of West Bengal and was subsequently hit by a freight train. The tragic incident caused the death of at least 148 passengers.
According to media reports, the Maoists (Naxalites) removed 46 centimeters of railway, which caused the accident. However, some reports also claimed that the derailment happened due to a bombing.
9. Fatehpur Train Accident
Around 70 people were killed and over 300 injured when the mail train derailed in Fatehpur. The accident occurred on July 10, 2011, at 12:20, when the 15 coaches of Howrah-Kalka Mail derailed near Malwan. As per news reports, several cars caught fire.
10. Pukhrayan Train Tragedy
At least 150 people were killed and over 150 injured on November 20, 2016 as a result of the Indore-Patna Express derailment near Pukhrayan in Uttar Pradesh.
The cause of the incident was unknown, but the authorities suspected sabotage and even a terror attack. However, some media reports quoting sources said that the train was overcrowded while some survivors had claimed that one of the coaches was making noise and the wheels were not running smoothly.