At least 12 people were killed and 11 injured in India on Wednesday night after getting off a train and being hit by another train at the same time and on the tracks, local authorities said.
The passengers disembarked after rumors of a fire on their train spread and panicked those on board, authorities said.
The accident happened around 17:00 in Maharashtra State, 170 kilometers northeast of Mumbai, said Ashok Pawar, a police inspector at the Pachora police station. Passengers were aboard the Pushpak Express, a train traveling from Lucknow, in northern India, to Mumbai in the west, when reports of the fire spread, he said.
Panic set in, and people began to leave the train when it finally stopped, said Mr. Pawar. They were hit by another train, the Karnataka Express, which was passing on a parallel track.
It was not clear how many passengers were on the Pushpak Express. Mr. Pawar said the train was full of people, most of whom were migrant workers traveling for work. The accident, he said, left the victims seriously injured.
Authorities said they are looking into the incident.
“We will investigate what was the real reason, whether it was a real fire or just a rumor spread by any evil-hearted person,” said Maheswar Reddy, superintendent of police in Jalgaon district, where the accident happened, reporters said.
Mr. Pawar, the inspector, said seven people who died were from Nepal and four from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where Lucknow is located. One body is still unaccounted for, and the families of the victims are now in Jalgaon, he said.
Devendra Fadnavis, a senior government official in Maharashtra, said on Wednesday that eight ambulances had been sent to the scene. The state government will provide financial assistance to the families of the deceased, he said on social media, and will pay the expenses of the injured.
The accident has raised many questions about the safety of rail travel in India, where millions of people rely on a network of trains that are prone to accidents, especially in rural areas.
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