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Goods train carrying HSD
catches fire in UP; 2 killed

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Two persons were burnt alive when 11 bogies carrying high speed diesel derailed at Aonla railway station, near Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh at 0015 hours IST on Saturday.

Railway sources said the mishap occurred when the train overshot the block and derailed. The resultant spark set off the conflagration and the driver and assistant driver were charred to death. Residents spoke of hearing the explosion from more than a kilometre away. The train had 47 bogies, each carrying 70 kilo litres of HSD.

Given the extent of the mishap, railway authorities said the damage to Aonla railway station was minimal, since most of the flaming debris fell on the other side, on to open fields. Officials at the railway headquarters in New Delhi said all passengers who were at the railway station were safe. Five fire brigades from the nearby Indian Oil Corporation were summoned at once to put out the huge fire, and the army fire brigade too has been kept on stand-by.

Northern Railway sources told PTI that a probe has been ordered into the mishap, adding that normal traffic on the section was restored at 1100 hours on Saturday.

However, schedules of the Sadbhavana Express and Delhi-Bareilly Express have been affected and two passenger trains have been cancelled following the derailment, the sources added.

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