Muzaffarnagar Train Accident: Repair Work At Track Could Be Reason Of Mishap, Says ATS

NDRF officials said the search and rescue operations were "practically over" at the accident site with the last of the bodies presumably being pulled out from the wreckage of the coaches.

District authorities have also issued three helpline numbers: 0131-2436103/2436918/2436564.

The accident occurred around 5.45 pm near Khatauli town, 40 km off Muzaffarnagar, leaving 23 people dead, the Uttar Pradesh police said. Repair work at the track could be the reason of the mishap, said ATS.

Priyadarshi said 90 people were injured in the accident and most of them have been admitted at district hospital, Muzaffarnagar. Some others were taken to Muzaffarnagar Medical College and Meerut Medical College, he added.

The train was coming from Puri in Odisha and going to Haridwar in Uttarakhand, normally a journey of about 36 hours. Posses of PAC, ATS and NDRF teams, as also sniffer dog squads, were rushed to the spot to carry out rescue operations. The injured were shifted to nearby government and private hospitals.

Railway ministry officials in Delhi, however, put the number of dead at 12 and the injured around 75. Two of the deceased have been identified as residents of Saharanpur, the district magistrate said.

Deepak Agarwal, Commissioner, Saharanpur Division and District Magistrate, Muzaffarnagar, G S Priyadarshi said the official figure of bodies in the mortuary was 21, while another body, of a woman, was being pulled out.

Khatauli/New Delhi: Fourteen coaches of the high-speed Utkal Express jumped the rails, with one of them crashing into a house adjacent to the track near Khatauli in UP on Saturday evening, killing at least 23 people and leaving several others injured. (All images: ABP Live)