India Train Crash: Buhari Sends Condolence As Death Toll Hits 121

SAN FRANCISCO, November 20, (THEWILL) – President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a condolence message to Indian prime Minister, Narendra Modi over the Sunday train disaster that has so far killed 121 persons with more than 150 injured when the county's express train derailed in northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, says Police.

The President, who received the news of the train derailment and heavy loss of lives, expressed great sorrow and profound shock saying that the government and the people of Nigeria felt and shared the pains and the anguish of the families of the victims and all Indians.

“The loss of human life on whatever scale, and anywhere, is bad enough,” adding that “the world becomes united in sorrow during such moments because our common humanity makes us a family,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

According to Times of India, the death toll, the death toll initially put at 60 with more than 80 injured has now increased to 121 with 150 injured.

The newspaper published the list of the dead passengers and reported that most of the over 200 injured passengers were grievously wounded because the train was overloaded before the crash.

“While the railways claimed that around 1,200 people were on board, railway sources claimed that the number of passengers were much more that,” It reported.

“Sources claimed that hundreds of passengers on the train were travelling either without ticket or with general ticket which the railways figures do not show.

“The number of such people could have been even around 500 which is almost half the capacity of the train.”

Police said the toll set to rise amid a scramble to locate survivors as people were still missing, while authorities tried to determine what caused the derailment of 14 carriages of the train.

Authorities said they were checking the condition of the tracks but would need to look further before concluding the cause of the derailment.

Story by Oputah David