Triple Train Accident: Army Columns, Air Force Choppers, Over 300 NDRF Personnel Deployed In Rescue Ops

More than 300 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force are involved in the rescue operations at the crash site who are expected to wind up the search operation by Saturday evening

Locals, security personnel and NDRF during the search and rescue operation at the trains crash site ( Image Source :PTI )

Army columns were rushed in and Air Force choppers were deployed for relief and rescue operations for passengers injured in the triple train accident in Odisha’s Balasore, said a Defence official on Saturday. 261 people have been reported dead with over 900 injured after Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed near Bahanaga railway station in Odisha’s Balasore district, colliding with another passenger train. The official said that the operations were being carried out in coordination with the railway authorities on the ground. 

Army medical and engineering teams with ambulances and support services have been deployed from Eastern Command," he said, reported news agency PTI. 

The army columns, including engineering and medical personnel, have been dispatched to the rail crash site from its installations at Barrackpore and Panagarh in West Bengal, the official said, adding two Mi17s were also deployed for the rescue of the injured passengers. 

Over 300 NDRF Personnel Involved In Rescue Operations

More than 300 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force are involved in the rescue operations at the crash site who are expected to wind up the search operation by Saturday evening, Director General of the force Atul Karwal said. 

"More than 300 rescuers divided into nine teams are working at the accident site. We hope to finish the search operation by this evening," Karwal said at the NDRF headquarters in New Delhi. 

44 victims have been rescued alive while 71 bodies were taken out from the mangled railway coaches by the federal contingency force. 

He said the first NDRF team reached the site from its regional response centre in Balasore about an hour and a quarter after the accident that is stated to have occurred around 7-7:10 pm on Friday.

The rest of the NDRF teams were rushed from Mundali in Cuttack district and Kolkata, he said.