Train derailment in Pakistan: at least 15 dead

August 6, 2023

At least 15 people were killed and 45 others injured in a train derailment in southern Pakistan on Sunday, Pakistan’s Minister of Railways said.

“It’s a really serious accident,” Khawaja Saad Rafique told reporters, “rescue teams reached the site and at least 15 passengers were killed and 45 injured.”

“Additional rescue teams have been sent to the scene,” he added.

The accident happened near Sahara railway station in the town of Nawabshah in the southern province of Sindh, local media reported.

“The Hazara express was traveling from Karachi to Abbottabad, eight cars derailed,” railway official Mohsin Syal told private channel HUM News. State television reported at least 15 dead and 40 injured, citing railway officials.

Ijaz Shah, a provincial railway official, told AFP that several passengers were killed and several others injured in the accident and that a train was sent to the site with rescuers.

Footage released by local media showed 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 the country, which inherited thousands of miles of track and trains from colonial times under the British Empire, whose maintenance has been neglected over the years.

In June 2021, at least 65 people were killed and 150 others injured in the collision of two trains, including one that had just derailed, in the south of the country.

In October 2019, at least 75 passengers were burned to death in a fire aboard a Tezgam express, and in 2005 the collision of two trains in Ghotki killed more than 100 people.