India train fire: As many as 47 dead
A videojournalist (L) records footage of a gutted train carriage, which caught fire from an electrical short circuit killing as man as 47, in Nellore, India, on July 30, 2012.
As many as 47 people have been killed and 28 injured in a fire on a passenger train traveling in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Investigators found charred remains of passengers still in their sleeping berths and were having difficulties identifying them, reported the Associated Press.
The AP also reported that a railway station worker noticed the burning car as the train — traveling overnight from New Delhi to the southeastern city of Chennai — passed through the town of Nellore at about 4 a.m. Once the alarm was raised, the train was stopped and the car was detached from the rest of the train to stop the fire from spreading. Passengers were then evacuated.
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"Since the fire had engulfed one door of the coach, people had to rush to the other end of the coach to exit," local official B. Sridhar told the AP.
According to the New York Daily News, passengers said the fire moved quickly through the car.
"We woke up suddenly when the train came to a halt. That's when we noticed the fire at one end of the coach and shouted out. People were still sleeping, but once they realized the danger they scrambled to the door," said Shantanu, a passenger in the car. "By the time we got out of the door, the coach was completely on fire." He said firefighters sprayed water over the fire, but the train car was gutted.
Train accidents in India have killed 1,220 people in the past five years, reported BBC News. India's railway is made up of 9,000 passenger trains and carries 18 million passengers every day.