Rescue operation began after a Pakistani train smashed into derailed carriages from another train on Monday (June 7), killing at least 40 people, government officials said, in the latest accident to highlight the perilous state of a more than 165 year-old railway system.
The death toll was likely to rise as rescuers struggled to reach people trapped in several mangled compartments strewn across the tracks in the southern province of Sindh. Military helicopters arrived at the scene to ferry the injured to the nearest hospital.
Police officer Umar Tufail said the death toll has rose to 40, including four bodies stuck in the wreckage.
“We have not been able to take them out so far, but an operation is underway for that,” he told reporters at the site. “We have saved three more people; they are injured,” he added.
“It is a very sad incident,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a news conference. “I am sure that the railway authorities will fully investigate it. But the priority right now is to immediately send medical facilities to the spot.”
