Train derailment kills at least 15, injures 50 in southern Pakistan, officials say

AP, MULTAN :

At least 15 passengers killed and 50 more injured when a train derailed near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah in southern Sindh province, officials said Sunday.

The Hazara Express was on its way from Karachi to Rawalpindi when ten cars derailed near the Sarhari railway station off Nawabshah, said senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho. Lakho is in charge of railways in the accident area.

Lakho said rescue crews took injured passengers to the nearby Peoples Hospital in Nawabshah.

Mohsin Sayal, another senior railway officer, said train traffic has been suspended on the main railway line as repair trains have been dispatched to the scene. Sayal said alternative travel arrangements and medical care will be made available for the train’s passengers.

Train crashes often occurred on poorly maintained railways tracks in Pakistan where colonial-era communications and signal systems haven’t been modernized and safety standards are poor.