Tamil Nadu Express Fire : 47 Killed & Many More Injured

At least Fourty-Seven passengers have been killed and Twenty-Five have been injured after a sleeper coach (S11) of the New Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express caught fire near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh at around 4.45 am today due to a short circuit.

According to the sources, as the train was passing through Nellore, which is about 150 kms from Chennai, some people noticed the fire and informed railway authorities.

The coach, that seats 72, was full. There were 17 people in the coach from Delhi, 11 from Bhopal, 11 from Warangal and 28 from Vijayawada.

According to the sources,

“There was a short circuit near the toilet and the train was moving at a speed of 110 kms per hour. It was going to Chennai from Delhi. All the passengers were asleep when the fire broke out at 4:30 a.m. People were not able to come out immediately. The fire spread fast and the passengers could not come out through one of the doors because of the fire. So the other edge of the coach was to be used. Some people could come out and others succumbed to death.”

The injured passangers have been admitted to three hospitals including Nellore Government Hospital, People’s Polyclinic and Jayabarathi Hospital in Nellore.

A list put out by the Southern Railway showed those admitted to Government Hospital Nellore include Rekha (S11-5), Veena (S11-63), Sambasivarao, Varma Sirish, Venkata Kotishwara Rao, Verma, Hussain, Raghavan, KK Sunil Kumar, Harshed, Sandeep Agnihotri and Amir Preth Singh.

Those admitted to People’s Polyclinic are Vijaykumar and Krushi.

Six more people have been taken to Jayabarathi Hospital in Nellore. Railways have identified them as Sarala, KK Banzarlal, Udaya Baskar, AR Srinivasalu, Prakash Singh and Shoba Singh.

Railways has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the families of dead, Rs 1 lakh for major injuries and Rs 25,000 for minor injuries. A special train carrying relatives of passengers of the Tamil Nadu Express has left New Delhi for the accident site.

Doctors at Nellore Hospital can be contacted at 0861-2330024, 2328500.

The contact numbers for People’s Polyclinic are 0861-2347704, 2309662