At least 24 killed, 100 injured as two trains collide in Bhairab

Staff Reporter with Kishoreganj Correspondent  :
At least 24 people were killed and over 100 injured on Monday when a freight train hit a passenger train in Kishoreganj district, according to locals and witnesses.

The identities of the deceased could not be known immediately.

The fatal train accident took place when the freight train headed towards Chattogram hit the rear coaches of the Dhaka-bound Egarosindur Godhuli Express around 3.30 pm in Bhairab of Kishoreganj district, some 60 kilometres northeast of the capital Dhaka.

Witnesses said the collision occurred as both the trains entered in a same track at that time of crossing at the outer point of Bhairab railway station.

The collision led two passengers’ carriages to derail, causing the causality.

“Twenty bodies have been recovered so far. We are extending our all possible support to the rescue operations,” an official of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) told reporters.

Fire service officials on the spot said three passenger carriages were upturned and feared many people were trapped under the dilapidated wagons though some 100 passengers were rescued with wounds and rushed to different health facilities.

“We expect to find more bodies as well as injured passengers during the rescue process,” a fire service official told reporters at the scene.
A rescue train with cranes has left for the accident site.

Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence media chief Shahjahan Sikder said that over a dozen units of the fire service are conducting rescue operations.

“The freight train crashed into the Egarosindur Godhuli Express from behind, striking two of the carriages,” Anowar Hossain, superintendent of Dhaka Railway Police, told media.

“I heard a big bang minutes after the train left the Bhairab station. At first I thought another train was passing by, moments later it seemed like a storm.

I can’t say anything more,” said Sadek, a student of Dhaka’s Titumir College and passenger of Egarosindur Godhuli Express.

He was sharing his experience to reporters after the fatal train accident.

“After regaining consciousness, I discovered myself amid a pile of human bodies inside a bogie of the train,” Sadek said adding that he somehow scrambled out of the train through the window with his friend Nayeem.