Headline PH: Suspected sabotage derails train in India; 90 dead

SARDIHA, India – Railway authorities canceled all night trains in an eastern Indian state on Saturday after a passenger express train derailed and was hit by a cargo train, killing at least 90 people and injuring hundreds. The government accused Maoist rebels of sabotaging the tracks.

Railway workers and paramilitary soldiers used cranes to lift and pry apart train cars to search for more bodies from the Jnaneswari Express, which was heading from Calcutta to suburban Mumbai when it derailed early Friday.

"The death toll now stands at 90, and there are 149 people with injuries in hospitals," said Soumitra Mazumdar, a railways spokesman.

"We are doing everything possible to pull the bodies from the wreckage," he said.

Railway officials said they believed bodies were still trapped between the engines of the two trains, which smashed together near the small town of Sardiha, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) west of Calcutta in West Bengal state.

Railway authorities said they would not run any trains at night in West Bengal for at least the next four days, when Indian Maoist rebels have called a general strike.

By BIKAS DAS,
Associated Press Writer

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