Tragedy in Pakistan as passenger train is derailed, killing 19

Tragedy in southern Pakistan as Hazara Express passenger train is derailed, killing 19 and injuring a further 50

• Ten cars derailed near the Sarhari railway station off Nawabshah, Pakistan 

At least 15 passengers were 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 travelling from Karachi to Rawalpindi when 10 cars derailed near the Sarhari station, senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho said.

Images showed dozens of people at the site, with some smashing windows to help passengers clamber out of the twisted carriages and at least one coach overturned. 

Crowds gathered around the train, appearing to pull people out from the wreckage as rescue crews took passengers to the nearby People’s Hospital in Nawabshah.

As army rescue teams are called in to help out, the main nearby hospitals have been forced to declare an emergency. 

Residents walk beside carriages following the derailment of a passenger train in Nawabshah, in the Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on August 6, 2023

Local residents and ambulances are seen beside carriages following the derailment of a passenger train in Nawabshah, in the Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on August 6, 2023

In other clips shared locally, horrific scenes showed people moving bodies from around and under the track.

Part of the train was seen to have fallen over a murky body of water, polluted with belongings from the train.

Onlookers stood by unable to act as others clambered aboard the train to look for survivors.

In other footage, rescuers were seen carefully helping down an elderly woman who had apparently escaped the crash.

Train traffic has been suspended on the main railway line as repair trains have been dispatched to the scene, senior railway officer Mohsin Sayal said. 

Officials also confirmed alternative travel arrangements and medical care would be made available for the train’s passengers. 

Local media claimed Saad Rafique, the Federal Minister for Railways and Aviation, said officials would focus on the rescue before investigating the cause. 

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

In June 2021 two trains collided near Daharki in Sindh killing at least 65 people and injuring about 150 others.

In that accident, an express derailed onto the opposite track, and a second passenger train crashed into the wreckage roughly a minute later.

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

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