Amritsar: At least 50 people were killed on Friday evening when a train mowed into a crowd watching the Dussehra festivities that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching the burning of a Ravana effigy, officials said. The bursting of the crackers from the effigy had reportedly drowned out the noise of the approaching train.
The accident took place at Joda Phatak in Amritsar.
#Punjab: Police says, “There are more than 50 casualties. We are evacuating people, injured taken to the hospital”, on accident in which several are feared dead in Choura Bazar near Amritsar pic.twitter.com/ITMeckyIN4
— ANI (@ANI) October 19, 2018
The train was coming from Jalandhar to Amritsar. At least 300 people were at the spot watching ‘Ravan dahan‘, sources said.
Residents said Navjyot Kaur Siddhu, (wife of Congress minister Navjyot Singh Siddhu),who was the chief guest at the event, sped away in her car.Also said that they had informed Railways about the Dussehra celebrations,but the train continued to speed #Amritsar pic.twitter.com/Bp68hw3Je1
— vijaita singh (@vijaita) October 19, 2018
“The administration and the Dussehra committee are at fault, they should have raised an alarm when the train was approaching, they should have made sure that the train halts or slows down,” an eyewitness told news agency ANI.
#Punjab: At gate no. 27 b/w Amritsar & Manawala. As Dussehra celebration was taking place some incident had occurred& people started rushing towards closed gate number 27 while a DMU train number 74943 was passing the closed gate: CPRO Northern Railway; Visuals from accident site pic.twitter.com/TMJILYC6Or
— ANI (@ANI) October 19, 2018
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh tweeted soon after the accident that he was rushing to Amritsar to personally to supervise the relief and rescue efforts and that the state government would give Rs 5 lakh to the kin of those killed.
Rushing to Amritsar to personally supervise relief & rescue in tragic rail accident on Dussehra in Amritsar. My govt will give Rs 5 lakh to kin of each deceased & free treatment to injured in govt & pvt hospitals. District authorities have been mobilised on war footing.
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) October 19, 2018
(With inputs from PTI)