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Railway accident in western India kills at least 16 people

Other News Materials 28 February 2008 11:29 (UTC +04:00)

(dpa) - At least 16 people, including two women and three children killed in India's western state Gujarat, when they were run down by an oncoming express train, said railway police officials on Thursday.

The accident occurred at about 11 pm on Wednesday in Udhna town of Surat district, about 306 kilometers south of state capital Gandhinagar.

The group of migrant labourers got off a train at Udhana and were walking on a railway bridge over a pond, when they were run over by a train.

"As of now 16 people are dead. Though we are still investigating the incident, it seems the labourers were walking on the railway track towards Surat and an express train mowed them down," a senior railway police official Amit Sawarkar of Udhana police station said.

"There could be dead bodies in the nearby pond," said Sawarkar.

Two tickets recovered from the bodies indicated that the group of labourers had come to Udhana on board Taptiganga Express that runs from Varanasi in northern state Uttar Pradesh to Surat.

Indian Railways runs one of the largest rail networks in the world, and reports an average of 250 accidents each year.

Every day more than 8,500 trains carry 13 million passengers over 3,000 kilometres of railway track criss-crossing India.

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