The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narednra Modi over his visit to Odisha after the triple train crash in state’s Balasore district. The party alleged that the entire focus of Modi’s visit was “PR exercise and showing off” rather than the safety of the passengers. PM on Saturday noon reached at the crash site in Balasore to take stock of the situation where he was briefed by Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and also met with the injured victims in a hospital. 


At least 288 people were dead and over a thousand injured after Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel express derailed and encroached on to the opposite track, derailing a few coaches of train travelling from Yeshwanthpur to Howrah and a third freight train colliding near Bahanaga railway station in Odisha’s Balasore district on Friday night. 


Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw immediately rushed to the state the same night and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also reached the site on Saturday morning. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also visited the crash site and met with the injured people. 


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Army columns were rushed in and Air Force choppers deployed while over 300 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force were involved in the search and rescue operations. The Indian Navy also deployed medical teams to support rescue operations in Balasore. 


Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said that the rescue operations were almost complete and that the process had begun for the last coach. Death toll stood at 288 and the number of people injured did not increase and was over 1,000.


People with minor injuries have left the hospital for their places after treatment and around 800 bodies are in hospitals with some of them identified, he said. 


160 bodies have been moved to mortuary in different hospitals including AIIMS Bhubaneswar, he added. 


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