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One dead, seven others injured as passenger train derails in India

Train India
The Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed in Gonda district, near the Hindu holy city of Ayodhya, India.

One person died and seven other injured as a passenger train derailed in India on Thursday.

The train which belonged to the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed in Gonda district, near the Hindu holy city of Ayodhya, at around 2:30 pm (0900 GMT).

“According to the preliminary information that we have received from the site, one has been reported dead and seven others are injured,” Indian Railways spokesman Pankaj Singh told reporters.

“Six have minor injuries while one has a grievous injury.”

At least four carriages had overturned at the site of the accident in Gonda district, broadcaster NDTV reported.

Chief Medical Superintendent of Gonda District Hospital, Anil Kumar Tiwari, told AFP that a team of medics had been rushed to the accident site.

India’s railway network remains the main form of travel in the vast country, but it is poorly funded and deadly accidents often occur.

Last year nearly 300 people were killed when a passenger train collided with a stationary goods train, with the derailed compartments then striking another fast-moving passenger service.

India’s worst-ever rail accident occurred in 1981, when a cyclone blew a train off its tracks and into a river in the state of Bihar, leaving 800 dead and more than 100 injured.

At least seven people were killed when an express passenger train and a goods train collided in June in India’s West Bengal state, derailing three passenger carriages, police said.

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