Rescue workers and police officials stand next to damaged coaches following a collision between two passenger trains in Vizianagaram district in the southern Andhra Pradesh state, India, October 30, 2023. REUTERS/R.Narendra NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES
Officials reported that a collision between two passenger trains in southern India on Sunday resulted in the loss of at least eight lives.
At least 25 people were injured in the crash, officials said. The crash happened in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district.
An incoming train slammed into a stationary train, derailing at least three rail cars, senior railway officer Saurab Prasad told Associated Press news agency.
The Indian Railway Ministry said in a statement that two coaches were derailed.
A preliminary investigation found that “human error” caused by “overshooting of signal” had led to the collision, the ministry said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X that he had spoken with the federal railway minister. He sent “condolences to the bereaved families and prays that the injured recover soon.”
Modi announced financial compensation for families of those who died in the accident to the tune of 200,000 rupees ($2,260, €2,397).
Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy asked authorities to send as many ambulances as possible to the crash site and other relief measures.
Train crashes are common in India and are often blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.
In June, an error in the electronic signaling system led a train to wrongly change tracks and crash into a freight train in the eastern Odisha state.
The accident killed more than 280 people and was one of the country’s deadliest crashes in decades.
More than 12 million people ride 14,000 trains across India every day, traveling on 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of track.