At least 15 dead, 50 hurt as Pakistan trains collide
At least 17 people have been killed and dozens more injured after two trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi early Thursday, officials said.
Witnesses described watching in horror as one train sped into the city's Quaidabad Railway Station and rammed into the second, which was parked there, with the roar of the crash swiftly followed by the screams of people trapped inside.
Rescuers armed with metal-cutting equipment and heavy cranes were fighting to reach passengers still trapped in the twisted wreckage. They were joined by the military and police.
The engine of one train appeared destroyed, he said, but the exact extent of the damage was unclear.
Senior administration official, Nasir Nazeer in Karachi said there could have been up to 1 000 passengers in total on board the trains when the accident occurred.
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Seemi Jamali, spokeswoman at Karachi's Jinnah Hospital, confirmed at least 17 people had died. Earlier she said the hospital had received some 50 wounded.
The accident occurred when the incoming "Zakria Express" from the central city of Multan rammed into the "Fareed Express", from Lahore, as it waited at Quaidabad Station, also known as Jumma Goth, in the Landi neighbourhood of Karachi.
Train services from Karachi to the rest of the country have been suspended.
Train accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of miles (kilometres) of track and trains from former colonial power, Britain.
The railways have seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.
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Thursday's crash was the second this year involving the Fareed Express. In February the northbound train hit a van at a crossing in southern Pakistan, killing eight people from the same family.
Railway accidents in Pakistan often take place at the unmanned crossings, which often lack barriers and sometimes signals.
In September four people were killed and more than 100 injured when two trains collided near the central city of Multan.
The accident occurred when the Karachi-bound "Awam Express" passenger train rammed into a goods train that had stopped after running over a man near the city of Multan.