Triple Pakistan train crash leaves 150 dead, 1,000 injured near Ghotki, Sindh.
The dawn incident near the town of Ghotki in Sindh province involved three passenger express trains. Three passenger trains collided at a southern Pakistan station early Wednesday,
killing around 150 people and injuring 1000, officials said. Police said the death toll could rise to 300 following the devastating pile-up near the remote town of Ghotki, southern Sindh, where rescue teams were still pulling bodies from the mangled coaches. Railway officials blamed one of the train drivers for misreading a signal, while President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered an urgent investigation into the crash.
The general manager of Pakistan Railways said the crash was caused by a train conductor misreading a signal.
One express rammed into the back of a stationary train, and a third train ploughed into derailed coaches.
Officials said the
Karachi Express coming from Lahore smashed into the rear of broken down
Quetta Express at Sarhad station near Ghotki, about 600km (370 miles) north-east of the city of Karachi, at around 4:00 am on Wednesday, the 13th July (12th July 2300 GMT), when most of the passengers were sleeping.
A number of carriages were catapulted and scattered onto the nearby track.
A third train travelling in the opposite direction - the
Tezgam Express - then ploughed into the wreckage.
As many as 17 carriages were totally destroyed, a local TV channel reported.
"The crash occurred because of misreading of a signal by the driver of
Karachi Express and it rammed the
Quetta Express, which was not moving," Abdul Wahab Awan, general manager of Pakistan Railways told The Associated Press.
Rescuers were pulling out the dead and injured out of the trains. Body parts were strewn across the site amid piles of twisted steel and rescuers had to cut through
metal to get to the injured.
