Tamil Nadu Express fire: 35 charred to death, Rail Minister hints at sabotage

July 30, Nellore: Thirty-five people have been killed and 25 have been injured after a sleeper coach (S11) of the Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express caught fire near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh at around 4.45am. It was initially believed to have been caused by an electrical short-circuit but the railways would be probing it from all angles.

In Kolkata, the Railway Minister Mukul Roy said, “Some of the injured passengers admitted to hospitals and a gateman at one of the level crossings near Nellore station heard a loud sound when the fire occurred in the coach”.

Roy said that the Divisional Railway Manager had also said that there was a report of a blast even as the minister maintained that nothing can be “excluded” as to what caused the fire.

Asked if he suspected any act of sabotage, Roy said, “I will not say anything at this stage.” He said that there was a talk about short circuit as also some inflammable substance being carried by a passenger.

“Nothing can be excluded and nothing can be said without an investigation. It will be investigated if inflammable substances were in the compartment or it was caused by a short circuit,” the minister said.

Twenty-six passengers were rescued from the coach S 11 which was completely gutted, Nellore collector Sridhar said.

As the train was passing through Nellore, which is about 150 kms from Chennai, some people noticed the fire and informed railway authorities.

Railway officials have not ruled out the sabotage angle. Rail Minister has announced a probe by the commissioner of railway safety.

The fire broke out between 4.30 a.m. and 4.45 a.m. in the S-11 coach minutes after the Chennai-bound train left Nellore railway station in south coastal Andhra Pradesh, about 450 km from Hyderabad.

The reported recovery of a kerosene can in the gutted compartment, the eye witness accounts and the speed with which the fire spread all point a finger towards possible sabotage.

Director General of Police V. Dinesh Reddy said that it would be premature to say anything about the cause of the fire without a thorough probe by the railways.

The injured have been admitted to three hospitals including Nellore Government Hospital, People’s polyclinic and Jayabarathi Hospital in Nellore.

A list put out by the Southern Railway showed those admitted to Government Hospital Nellore include Rekha (S11-5), Veena (S11-63), Sambasivarao, Varma Sirish, Venkata Kotishwara Rao, Verma, Hussain, Raghavan, KK Sunil Kumar, Harshed, Sandeep Agnihotri and Amir Preth Singh. Those admitted to People’s Polyclinic are Vijaykumar and Krushi.

Six more people have been taken to Jayabarathi Hospital in Nellore. Railways have identified them as Sarala, KK Banzarlal, Udaya Baskar, AR Srinivasalu, Prakash Singh and Shoba Singh.

Helpline nos: Nellore (0861- 2576924, 2575038); Secunderabad (040-27786723, 2345864).

Doctors at Nellore Hospital can be contacted at 0861-2330024, 2328500.

The contact numbers for People’s Polyclinic are 0861-2347704, 2309662.

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Posted by Samir on Monday, July 30th, 2012. Filed under India News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.