The accident happened near the Sahara railway station in the town of Nawabshah in the southern province of Sindh. At least 15 people were killed in a train derailment in southern Pakistan on Sunday, local media reported.
“The Hazara Express was traveling from Karachi to Abbottabad, eight cars derailed,” railway official Mohsin Syal told private channel HUM News. “This is a really serious accident,” Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique told reporters, adding that “rescue teams reached the site and at least 15 passengers were killed and 45 injured.” The cause of the accident is still unknown.
Footage released by local media shows dozens of people at the site, some smashing train windows to help passengers out of twisted cars, at least one of which had overturned.
Rail accidents are common in Pakistan, which inherited thousands of miles of track and trains from colonial times under the British Empire. In June 2021, the derailment of a train near the town of Daharki had caused more than sixty victims. In October 2019, at least seventy-five people were killed in the fire of their train, which was traveling from Karachi to Rawalpindi. In 2016, two convoys carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Karachi, killing 21 people.
