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Accident scene in the Indian state of Odisha on the morning of June 4

Photo: Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images

The Indian authorities have completed the rescue work for possible survivors of the train accident in eastern India and have begun to remove the destroyed wreckage. In the country's worst accident in decades, around 300 people were killed and over a thousand injured. Now, investigators are looking for possible causes of the accident that occurred Friday night in the Balasore district of eastern Odisha state, including whether human error or signal errors played a role.

Fifteen bodies had been recovered on Saturday evening. During the night, efforts continued to remove a locomotive that had laid down on a wagon with heavy cranes. No bodies were found inside the locomotive, and the work was completed in the morning, said Sudhanshu Sarangi, general director of fire and rescue services in Odisha.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the Coromandel Express was given a signal to enter the main line, but this was later switched off. The train pulled into another track and collided with a freight train parked there, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Ten to 12 wagons of the train derailed and partially lay down on a neighboring track. A passenger train from the opposite direction drove against it, causing up to three cars of the second train to also derail, said Amitabh Sharma, a spokesman for the Ministry of Railways.

When asked about the cause of the accident and the preliminary findings, Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said: "Let's let the investigation report come to us. It wouldn't be appropriate to comment on that."

Rail network from the colonial era

The accident came at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is focusing on modernizing India's British colonial-era rail network, which has become the world's most populous country with 1.42 billion people. Despite the government's efforts to improve rail safety, several hundred accidents occur every year on India's rail network, the world's largest railway network under unified management.

Modi visited the scene of the accident on Saturday to get an idea of the relief efforts and to speak with the rescue workers. He also visited a hospital, where he asked the doctors about the treatment of the injured. The prime minister told reporters that he felt the pain of the victims of the disaster. The government will do everything it can to help them and severely punish anyone responsible for it.

Biden expresses sympathy to Indians

US President Joe Biden has expressed his condolences to the people of India. "Jill and I are heartbroken after the tragic news of the fatal train crash in India," Biden said, according to a statement from the White House in Washington, also on behalf of the First Lady. The President's thoughts are with the people of India.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres was also "deeply saddened" by the accident, according to his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. The Secretary-General expressed his condolences to the families of the victims as well as to the people of India and their government, it said in a statement from New York.

mgo/AP/dpa