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43 killed as Mangalore-Madras Mail
plunges into a river in Kerala

D Jose in Trivandrum

At least 43 persons were killed and more than 230 injured when eight bogies of the Madras-bound Mangalore Mail derailed over a bridge with four of them plunging into the swollen Kadalundi river between Parappanangadi and Calicut on Friday evening, railway sources said.

Eight women and two children were among the dead.

The accident occurred 10km from Calicut when the 19-coach train was passing over bridge number 924 in Palghat division of the Southern Railway at about 1700 IST. It was raining heavily at the time, railway sources in Trivandrum said.

Initial reports said the accident was caused as a girder of the bridge broke when the train was passing over it.

Forty-three deaths were confirmed by 0110 IST on Saturday. The sources said more casualties were likely as some of the injured were reported to be in a critical state.

One of the compartments that plunged into the river was reserved for women. A fourth compartment was dangling from the bridge.

While initial reports had said the coaches were submerged in the swollen river, the sources said they were not fully submerged as the river was shallow and that helped in extricating the passengers trapped inside.

Fire tenders were rushed to the site from Calicut and 117 of those injured were moved to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital. The railway sources said that two of the bogies in the river had been cleared out by late Friday night.

Fifty naval divers from Cochin assisted in the operations on the Kerala government's request.

A breakdown train and another train carrying the divisional railway manager and relatives of the passengers left for the accident site.

Chief Minister A K Antony also rushed to the spot, as did Railway Minister Nitish Kumar from New Delhi, accompanied by Railway Board Chairman Ashok Kumar and member (traffic) R K Thoopal.

All railway traffic on the Mangalore-Madras route has been suspended.

The Southern Railway has set up help lines for relatives of the passengers. The numbers are:

• Calicut: (0495) 701234
• Trivandrum: (0471) 333198
• Madras: (044) 5354854
• Mangalore: (0854) 423137

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