GHOTKI: As many as 31 people were killed and more than 40 others were injured in a collision between two passenger trains at Raiti Railway Station area near Ghotki on Monday.
According to official, the accident took place around 03:30am when a Millat Express train going to Sargodha from Karachi overturned and collided with a Sir Syed Express train coming from Rawalpindi. As a result, 31 passengers were killed and over 40 injured. The officials said that 14 boogies of both the trains were damaged, some of them badly destroyed.
The police and rescue teams rushed to scene and conducted relief operation. The bodies and injured were shifted to nearby hospitals. The up and down train service was suspended soon after the accident. Army and Rangers troops joined the relief and rescue operation.
A military doctor and paramedics, along with ambulances, moved from Pannu Aqil has also reached the incident site, the ISPR statement said. The statement reads that engineer resources have been moved to carry out essential assistance and rescue work. The army’s special engineer team Urban Search and Rescue is being carried from Rawalpindi to the crash site to speed up relief and rescue efforts.
A relief train was sent from Rohri to the site of the incident. Helpline centres have been set up for passengers in Karachi, Sukkur, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.