11:52, 3 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS. At least 290 people have been killed and 900 are injured in a crash involving three trains in India's eastern Odisha state, the Hindustan Times reported citing local officials.

One passenger train derailed and its coaches fell on to the adjacent track where they were struck by an incoming train on Friday evening. A freight train was stationary.

The death toll is expected to rise, as many are still trapped in the wreckage.

The cause of India's worst train crash this century is not yet clear.

India’s Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday promised a “high level” probe into the train crash near Odisha’s Balasore as he visited the scene amid ongoing rescue operations.

BBC quoted officials as saying that several carriages from the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed at about 19:00 (13:30 GMT) in Balasore district, hit a stationary goods train and several of its coaches ended up on the opposite track.

Another train – the Howrah Superfast Express travelling from Yesvantpur to Howrah – then hit the overturned carriages.

President of India Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended condolences to the families of the victims.

The crash is India’s biggest train accident in the last two decades.

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