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India train fire kills dozens – report India train fire kills dozens – report
(about 1 hour later)
At least 25 people have died in a fire that swept through a running train in southern India, according to an official. A fire engulfed a passenger car on a moving train in southern India on Monday, killing at least 47 people, officials said.
District collector B Sridha says the train stopped after fire in one coach was noticed by an official at a railway station on Monday. Most of the passengers were asleep when the fire broke out at about 4am on the overnight train from New Delhi to the south-eastern city of Chennai, said local official B Sridhar
He said the fire was believed to have been caused by a short circuit in the coach. It had been extinguished and at least 22 injured people have been hospitalised. A train station worker noticed the burning coach on the train as it passed through the town of Nellore, nearly 310 miles south of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state, Sridhar said.
The fire was reported at Nellore, a town about 310 miles south of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh state. Once the alarm was raised, the train was stopped and the passenger car detached from the rest of the train to prevent the blaze from spreading. Passengers were evacuated once the train was halted.
Sridha says the rescue operation was continuing and the death toll is likely to rise. "Since the fire had engulfed one door of the coach, people had to rush to the other end of the coach to exit," Sridhar told the Associated Press by telephone from the accident site.
He said the fire may have been caused by an electrical short circuit in the coach.
The blaze killed 47 people, said Anil Kumar, regional railway manager.
At least 28 other passengers were hospitalised with burns, Sridhar said, adding that at least two of the injured were in a critical condition.