Northeast Frontier Railway officials said two people died and more than a dozen were injured after two coaches of the Capital Express train got derailed in West Bengal on Tuesday night. The engine and the coach next to it derailed near Alipurduar district’s Samuktala Road Station, almost 720 kilometres from Kolkata, on its way to Assam’s Guwahati from Rajendra Nagar in Bihar, officials said.
There were varying reports on the number of casualty. While NDTV and some media reports claimed that 12 people suffered injuries, The Times of India reported that at least 34 people were injured. They are all undergoing treatment at a local hospital. Relief and rescue operations are underway. Alipurduar Divisional Railway Manager Sanjiv Kishore told The Times of India that an accident relief train has reached the spot. Authorities have rescheduled the onward journey for the rest of the passengers.
The incident follows the derailment of the Patna-Indore Express on November 20 that killed 146 people and injured more than 200 injured. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had said that a forensic inquiry would be conducted to look into all possible angles for the cause of the derailment. Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha had said the accident could have been caused by a fracture in the railway tracks.
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