An injured passenger of the Haridwar-Puri Utkal express being rescued in Khatauli on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: Twenty-three people were  killed and at least 400 injured after eight bogies of the Kalinga Utkal express derailed at Khatauli, 24 km from the Muzaffarnagar district, on Saturday evening. The train was on its way to Haridwar from Puri, Odisha. The UP DGP office in a press release confirmed the number of deaths and said that two NDRF teams and 65 ambulances were rushed to the site of derailment.

Sources said that the railway track was broken at one point which led to the derailment. Eye witnesses said that the train was running at a high speed when the derailment took place at around 5.46 pm. The injured passengers were rushed to a Muzaffarnagar hospital. The impact of the derailment was so strong that one bogie crashed into another, leaving several passengers trapped inside. One bogie also rammed into a house located along the railway track.

Gas cutters were used to cut open the bogies and rescue those trapped inside. The locals rushed to help the injured passengers. The NDRF team and additional medical teams also reached the site and senior railway and district officials began the rescue operations. The rescue operations were later hampered due to lack of light after sunset. Ambulances were summoned from Muzaffarnagar and Meerut to ferry the patients to hospitals and all hospitals in the adjoining districts were put on high alert.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed all officials to ensure proper treatment of the injured passengers. The chief minister directed two ministers, Suresh Khanna and Satish Mahana, to reach the site of derailment and supervise rescue operations. Railway spokesman Anil Saxena said that the priority was to rescue those still trapped inside and prevent loss of life. A team of the UP ATS also left for Muzaffarnagar to probe into the possibility of a sabotage or a terror angle in the case.

Govt ‘confused’ over figures 
The Uttar Pradesh government was in a state of total confusion over the figures related to the train mishap in Muzaffarnagar on Saturday. In an official release, the DGP office said the number of deaths was 23 and the number of injured, 400. 

Minutes later, the DGP sent another release bringing down the number of injured to 40. 
The home secretary said that the number of injured was 81. There was also confusion over the number of bogies that had derailed. The police and home department oscillated between six, eight and ten. Railway officials conveniently said that all facts would be briefed by the railway ministry as “Delhi is closer to the accident site than Lucknow”.