Pakistani security and rescue officials inspect the derailed carriages of a passenger train in Sanghar, near Nawabshah, Pakistan. EPA
Pakistani security and rescue officials inspect the derailed carriages of a passenger train in Sanghar, near Nawabshah, Pakistan. EPA

Pakistan train derailment kills at least 30



At least 30 people have been killed and 90 injured after a train derailed in south-east Pakistan on Sunday, with the death toll expected to rise as rescue workers search for victims.

Ten train carriages left the tracks, Railways Divisional Superintendent Sukkur Mahmoodur Rahman said.

The Hazara Express train was heading to Rawalpindi from Karachi and derailed in Nawabshah.

The train is said to have been carrying a large number of passengers and was possibly overcrowded, Pakistan's Geo TV reported.

"This is quite a big accident," Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said.

The train, with a capacity for almost 1,000 passengers, was travelling at a "reasonable speed", he said.

A rescue operation was under way, officials told Radio Pakistan, but trains carrying relief will take three hours to reach the site.

Ijaz Shah, a provincial railway official, told AFP that several passengers were killed and several others injured.

Images posted to local media showed dozens of people at the site, with some smashing windows to help passengers clamber out of twisted carriages.

Nine of the 10 derailed carriages had been emptied, officials said, with the last requiring heavy equipment to be searched.

It comes a day after another train derailed between Karachi and the city of Sialkot.

No casualties were reported.

Rail accidents are not uncommon in Pakistan.

Governments have for years been trying to secure funds to upgrade the rail network.

More than 60 people were killed in a crash in 2021, when a train derailed and was hit by an oncoming express service.

Several people were wounded in January, when a bomb blast derailed a train in Balochistan province.

At least 75 passengers were burnt to death in a fire aboard a Tezgam express train in October 2019, while a two-train collision at Ghotki killed more than 100 people in 2005.

Seven people, including four children, died when a train carriage caught fire in April.

An elderly woman was among the victims, succumbing to her injuries after attempting to jump from the train, which was travelling from Karachi to Lahore.

Updated: August 07, 2023, 6:06 AM