Officials on Tuesday said 15 people were killed and scores more wounded after two intercity trains crashed in eastern Bangladesh.
Police officer Shaymal Das said the accident occurred at around 3a.m (2100 GMT) in Brahmanbaria district, about 80km east of the capital Dhaka.
Chief administrator of the district, Hayat Khan said nine bodies were found at the crash site near Mondobhag Railway Station.
Another six people, among the 40 injured rescued and transported to local hospitals, died of their wounds.
Khan explained that two coaches of one of the trains were severely damaged as the Dhaka-bound Turna Nishita train hit the Chattogram-bound Udayan Express while it was changing tracks.
“A signal failure might have caused the accident,’’ Khan told dpa by phone from the scene adding that the railway department had launched an investigation into the mishap to determine its cause.
Local government official Masud Ul Alam said the death toll could rise as more than 100 people were wounded in the incident.
Salam Hossain, who lives near the railway station, told local Banglanews24 web portal that after hearing a loud bang he left his house to find several wounded people scattered by the side of the rail tracks.
Train links between Dhaka and other eastern destinations, including the south-eastern port city of Chattogram and north-eastern city of Sylhet, were suspended since the accident.
Shafiq Tuhin, an engineer at Bangladesh Railway, said resumption of train communication will take few more hours as a relief train had just reached the scene.
“We are trying our best to clear the train tracks,’’ Tuhin said.
Train crashes occur quite frequently in Bangladesh.(dpa/NAN)
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