Utkal Express Derails In UP’s Muzaffarnagar, Rescue Operation in Progress

NDTV

New Delhi, 19 August 2017:  At least 20 people have died and over 50 injured after 12 coaches of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh this evening.

 

News agency ANI quoted Anand Kumar, ADG Law and Order, confirming the number of dead to 10 in the train accident that took place around 5.46 p.m in Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar, barely 100 kilometres from the national capital, New Delhi. The train was headed from Puri in Odisha to Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

 

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has ordered an inquiry into the train derailment to ascertain its cause. "Strict action will be taken against any lapse."

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed grief over the incident.

 

The district administration has begun rescue operations; National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been sent from Delhi.

 

Local administration officials have reached the spot and rescue operations are underway, officials in Delhi said. Sub-Divisional Magistrate told NDTV that about 50 people have been rescued so far.

 

The accident comes less than a year after the Indore-Patna Express derailed near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh in November last year, leaving over 100 dead.