At least 11 dead as passenger train crashes into cargo train in India’s Chhattisgarh state
Bilaspur, India — At least 11 people were killed and around 20 injured when a local passenger train rammed into a stationary cargo train near the city of Bilaspur in India’s central Chhattisgarh state on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
The crash occurred about 115 kilometres (70 miles) northeast of the state capital, Raipur. According to senior government official Sanjay Agarwal, the passenger train struck the freight train from behind, with one of its carriages mounting a wagon from the cargo train.
Rescue teams worked for several hours to lower the carriage and cut it open with iron cutters, discovering three more bodies trapped inside. The operation concluded early Wednesday, and rail traffic through the accident site has now resumed, Agarwal told the Associated Press.
Among the dead was the passenger train’s driver. His female co-driver sustained critical injuries and was taken to a private hospital. About 20 passengers were also hurt and are being treated in local medical facilities.
Indian Railways, the state-run operator, has launched an inquiry into the cause of the collision and announced compensation for the families of those killed and injured. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai expressed condolences to the victims’ families.
Train accidents are common in India, where more than 12 million people travel daily on 14,000 trains across 64,000 kilometres (40,000 miles) of track. Despite ongoing safety upgrades, hundreds of incidents still occur each year, often attributed to human error or outdated signalling systems.
India’s worst rail tragedy in recent years occurred in 2023 in Odisha, when a three-train collision killed at least 288 people. Other transport disasters remain frequent — only last month, a passenger bus burst into flames after a crash with a motorcycle in Andhra Pradesh, killing at least 25 people.
