A freight train smashed into the rear of a stationary passenger train in India's West Bengal state on Monday (June 17), killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens, police said, in an accident that railway authorities blamed on driver error, Reuters reports.
Video footage showed members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) carrying out rescue operations near mangled train compartments, with one carriage left nearly vertical after the accident.
The accident happened after the driver of the freight train disregarded a signal and hit the rear end of the express train, Jaya Varma Sinha, the head of the railway board that runs the countrywide network, told reporters.
The goods train hit the Kanchanjunga Express travelling to Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, from the northeastern state of Tripura, driving three carriages of the passenger train off the rails.
