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At least 12 persons, including two women, were killed and 49 injured when the Patna-bound super-fast Shramjeevi Express jumped off the rails at Kheta Serai village near Jaunpur, about 200km east of the Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow early on Sunday.
There were conflicting reports on the cause of the accident. While Jaunpur District Magistrate Chandra Bhanu did not suspect sabotage, the railway authorities have not ruled out the possibility.
The Shramjeevi Express, which normally goes via Sultanpur, was diverted on the Jaunpur route on account of another derailment of a goods train on Saturday on the usual route.
All train services are now disrupted on both routes. The damaged railway track at Kheta Serai was yet to be restored to take normal traffic until late evening.
According to divisional railway manager Kamlesh Gupta, "The 24-coach passenger train was on its way from New Delhi to Patna when 13 of its coaches derailed around 3.40am." But casualties occurred only in four coaches, which capsized.
"Fortunately none of the coaches climbed on top of the other, as happens in such accidents," said Gupta. "That is why we do not fear a higher casualty."
As many as 49 persons were admitted to hospital in Jaunpur. But only a few of them were stated to be in a serious condition.
Meanwhile, a relief train together with a medical team and senior railway officials was rushed from Lucknow to the accident site.
A Jaunpur district official quoted an injured passenger, Bhola Prasad, as saying that his coach had been making a lot of noise and he had complained to railway authorities at Lucknow about the possibility of a 'loose wheel'. "But no one attended to the complaint and the train was allowed to proceed on its onward journey," the official told rediff.com
A railway official in Lucknow claimed that "in the darkness, the driver of the train failed to notice a caution sign about a weak culvert under the tracks, perhaps because he was not familiar with the route."
Meanwhile, the commissioner of railway safety has ordered an inquiry into the accident to determine its real cause.
PTI Adds: Six bodies -- those of four men and two women -- have been identified so far. They are Aarti, Sriram Yadav, Roshan, Raghuveer, Vijai Kumar (all from Bihar) and Mrityunjai Srivastav of Varanasi, railway officials said.
The rest of the dead are still to be identified. Three bodies were extricated after piercing open the mangled coaches with gas cutters.
Railway Minister Nitish Kumar visited the site with Railway Board officials, including the chairman.
Ten injured passengers admitted to the Civil Hospital, Jaunpur, are:
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