2 British nationals killed as train derails on Shimla-Kalka track

Shimla, September 12

Two British nationals were killed and 10 others injured when three carriages of a train that was carrying a group of tourists from Britain derailed this afternoon about 90km away from here.

According to officials, the mishap occurred at around 1pm on the Shimla-Kalka narrow gauge route near Parwanoo between the Kalka and Taksal stations.

The Great Railway Journey chartered train had 37 passengers aboard, all from Britain.

While two victims, women aged about 35 and 65 years, died on the spot, reports in Chandigarh said that one of the injured passengers had died at a hospital there.

“We have information about two persons who died on the spot. The third death can only be confirmed by authorities in Chandigarh,” said Madan Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner, Solan.

Railway authorities from Ambala and officers of Solan district administration rushed to the spot and all the injured have been taken to hospital and provided medical aid, he said.

The cause of the accident could not be immediately ascertained but experts suspect that it might have occurred due to over-speeding.

A senior Northern Railway official said that two of the passengers were seriously injured in the derailment.

An inquiry is being ordered into the derailment incident and senior officials, including Railway Board Member (Engineering) VK Gupta and Northern Railway General Manager AK Puthia, have rushed to the spot, said the official.

The train had a total of four coaches of which three got derailed on the Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge section.

Three of the injured were in a critical condition, with two of them having sustained head injuries while another one had suffered a fracture, Head of Emergency Services of Max hospital, Dr Sumit Arya said in Mohali.

The patients were in a state of shock and unable to come to terms how a day of joy and outing had turned into mourning and despair.

"However, one of the woman passengers said all were travelling in a happy mood and talking about their holiday.

The woman told us that she felt a sudden jerk and almost fell out of window when she was caught by her friend. The coaches derailed after the sudden jerk, she told us,” Arya said.

“The accident occurred when the train was about 3.5 km away from Kalka. The accident site falls in Himachal Pradesh," Divisional Railway Manager of Northern Railways, Ambala, Dinesh Kumar told PTI.

Kumar also said the cause of the accident was not "immediately clear" and an inquiry had been ordered into the incident.

The Kalka–Shimla Railway is a narrow gauge service which mainly covers the mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. — PTI