11 passengers run over by train in India amid fire rumour

Eleven people were killed on Wednesday after rumours of a fire on their train caused them to jump off and were crushed to death by another incoming train, officials said.

The incident in the western Maharashtra state is the latest to hit India's creaking rail network, which carries millions of passengers each day and has seen several disasters over the years.

"People were run over by a train," said Ayush Prasad, a top official of Jalgaon district where the accident occurred, some 400 kilometres from the country's financial hub of Mumbai. "11 people have died and about five are undergoing treatment."

It was not immediately clear whether the fire alarm was false.

A spokesperson for Indian Railways was quoted by local media as having said that someone had pulled the "alarm chain" on a Mumbai-bound train, following which "a few passengers got down from the train."

"At that moment, they were run over by another train going in the opposite direction," the spokesperson said.

India's interior minister Amit Shah expressed his "deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident."

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the "tragic incident" was "deeply disturbing." "Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives," he said in a post on X.

India has launched a $30 billion railway infrastructure modernisation in a bid to boost the economy and connectivity.

But analysts say that while the number of accidents has gone down over time, India's antiquated rail system still has a long way to go.

An average of 20,000 people died each year between 2017 and 2021 in rail accidents, according to official records.

In 2023, nearly 300 people were killed when a passenger train and a stationary goods train collided, with the derailed compartments then striking another fast-moving passenger service.

Agence France-Presse