Worst Railway Accidents in India

Accidents are common across the world, some bad, some not so much, some down right horrific. In this article we take a look at a few of the worst accidents in Indian Railways.

1. The latest in a line of tragedies to have hit the Indian railways is the Dehradun Express blaze that accounted for the lives of 9 people besides injuring many. The fire that broke out in three coaches of the express train caught the sleeping passengers unawares before engulfing them in flames. The details are not yet known as to the cause of the blaze.

2. One of the worst train tragedies India has witnessed in recent times was the Nanded-Bangalore Express blaze that killed 26 passengers and injured many more. The mishap took place at the Kothacheruvu railway station in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. The flames that engulfed the coaches was believed to have been caused by a short circuit.

3. This accident was a passenger train which derailed near Fatehpur, about 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Kanpur city, located in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The death toll of the accident in Uttar Pradesh was 80 with more than 350 injured in one of the worst rail disasters to hit the country's troubled rail network in years.

4. Onlookers stand beside the damaged carriages of a train at the site of an accident near Badarwas station, about 260 km (160 miles) north of Bhopal in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh September 20, 2010. A passenger train crashed into a goods train in Madhya Pradesh, killing at least 20 people and injuring 50.

5. This photo shows the wreckage of train carriages at the site of an accident at Sainthia in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal July 19, 2010. A speeding passenger train crashed into another waiting at a station in eastern India, killing at least 60 people in India's second major accident in as many months.

6. A crane lifts a damaged train carriage at the site of an accident at Jhargram area in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal May 29, 2010. Maoist rebels sabotaged the high-speed train that killed at least 71 people after it derailed and smashed into the path of a goods train, a top police official said.

7. In this picture, the wreckage of a train is seen at the site of an accident in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh January 2, 2010. At least 10 people were killed and about 40 injured in three train accidents in northern India, railway officials said, in foggy conditions that grounded flights and threw traffic out of gear.

8. The site of a train accident on the outskirts of the northern Indian city of Mathura October 21, 2009. A speeding passenger train rammed into another waiting near a northern Indian station, killing at least 10 people and trapping several others in site mangled compartments, officials said.

9. Stranded passengers stand on a derailed train near Hyderabad, capital of India's Andhra Pradesh October 29, 2005. Air force helicopters and navy divers plucked bodies from the mangled mess of a derailed passenger train in swirling flood waters in Andhra Pradesh, as officials confirmed 77 deaths.

10. Probably the worst in the railway history, this photo shows the Wreckage of train coaches as they block the railway track at Gaisal August 3. At least 275 people were killed and 460 injured in the head-on train collision.The Awadh-Assam Express, bound for Guwahati in the northeast state of Assam, collided with the Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail.