At least 34 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in a train crash in northern India on Friday.
Channel NewsAsia reports that the accident occurred when the Janta Express train overshot a signal and derailed at Bachhrawan station, approximately 45km from Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing parliament, Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu said driver “overshot the signal… causing derailment of the tail engine and two coaches.” It has also been suggested however, that the train’s brakes may have failed.
The train was travelling between Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, and Varanasi, a key city on the Ganges River in Uttar Pradesh.
The crash marks the latest in a series of tragedies on India’s vast rail network; only last month 11 people were killed when a Bengaluru-Ernakulam train derailed in the southern state of Karnataka.
But the modernisation of India’s colonial era railway network has been identified as one of the main priorities of Narendra Modi’s government.
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