India: more than 20 dead in double train derailment

Two express trains have derailed into a river in central India, killing more than 20 people and injuring dozens of others. Officials say flood waters weakened the tracks. Divers pulled out trapped passengers and some of them were rushed to hospital in a critical condition. The trains derailed near Harda, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, just before midnight local time. “So while approaching the culvert, the track, it caved in because of the heavy rains and wet soil, soft soil which it became because of the rain water. So it led to the derailment,” said Anil Saxena, an Indian Railways spokesman. It is the latest in a string of deadly disasters on India’s overloaded and outdated train network. More than 25-thousand people were killed last year alone. A former rail minister says the latest disaster could have been avoided, if the tracks had been maintained. “It’s totally unacceptable. It’s a symptom of a deep-rooted cancer in the railway system,” Dines Trivedi told reporters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi this year massively increased spending to modernise the network, but improvements will take years.