Confusion around the worst rail accident in more than 20 years in India. Indian authorities are trying to understand the causes of the rail tragedy that killed at least 4 people on Sunday (June 288th).

The search and rescue operations of the victims are now complete and the time is ripe for questions about the precise course of events that occurred Friday night.

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Human error or signaling?

Confusion reigns at this stage but the Times of India, citing the preliminary investigation report, said on Sunday that "human error" may have caused the collision between three trains.

The Coromandel Express, linking Kolkata to Madras, had been given the green light to run on the main track but was diverted due to human error on a track where a freight train was already located, according to the newspaper.

The passenger train then collided with the freight convoy at a speed of approximately 130 km/h. Three cars then fell on the adjacent track, hitting the rear of an express train that was flying between Bangalore and Kolkata. It was this collision that caused the most damage, the Times added, citing the preliminary report.

The tragedy took place near Balasore, about 200 kilometers from Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Odisha.

On Saturday, media reports, citing railway officials, had mentioned a signalling error.

At least 288 people died in the tragedy and 900 were injured. But the death toll is expected to rise further, and could reach 380, according to Odisha state fire service chief Sudhanshu Sarangi.

"No one responsible" for the accident will be spared, promised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the scene of the disaster on Saturday and met injured people in hospital.

"I pray that we get out of this sad moment as soon as possible," he told public broadcaster Doordarshan.

'All bodies and wounded evacuated'

Some 24 hours after the accident, rescue operations ended Saturday night, when the gutted carcasses were searched for survivors. "All bodies and injured passengers have been evacuated from the crash site," an official at the emergency coordination room in Balasore, near the scene of the tragedy, told AFP.

All hospitals between the crash site and Bhubaneswar are receiving victims, authorities said. Some 200 ambulances, and even buses, had been mobilized to transport them.

After the collision, "people were screaming, calling for help," Arjun Das, a survivor, told Indian television. The passengers were thrown from their berths, "there were wounded lying everywhere inside the cars and along the tracks," he added, stressing that he wanted to "forget the scenes" he witnessed.

Hiranmay Rath, a student whose home is near the train tracks, rushed to help. It was as if "the sky was falling on us or the earth was cracking".

Within hours, he said he saw more "death and distress" than he could have imagined. "Imagine looking at – or extracting – a person's crushed body, an arm or leg cut off."

"I saw bodies without heads, and others without limbs, bloodied bodies," Anubhav Das also testified, "it was almost like in war."

At this point, Friday night's rail crash is the deadliest in India since 1995, when two express trains collided in Firozabad, near Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, killing more than 300 people.

India has seen a number of fatal train accidents, but safety has improved in recent years thanks to new investment and technological improvements.

But the deadliest in the country's history remains that of June 6, 1981 when, in the state of Bihar (east), seven cars of a train crossing a bridge fell into the Bagmati River, killing between 800 and 1,000 people.

With AFP

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