Pakistan Train Crash: Several Dead As Two Trains Collide In Karachi

UPDATE: 2:45 a.m. EDT -- The death toll in the Karachi train crash Thursday has risen to 19. According to Nasir Nazeer, a Karachi railway official, the driver of the second train may have ignored the rail traffic signal, causing the crash.

“We’re hearing cries, people shouting for help from the wreck,” said Mukhtar Shah, a police official, according to the Associated Press. He said the number of casualties may rise as bodies were still trapped under some of the overturned rail cars.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offered condolences to those affected by the crash. The country’s Railways Minister Saad Rafique has ordered an inquiry into the collision.

Original story:

At least 17 people were killed and another 50 injured in a train crash in Pakistan, local officials said. Two trains collided early Thursday morning near Landhi railway station in the southern port city of Karachi.

Railways official Nasir Nazeer put the number of people injured at 50, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Early reports said that one of the trains crashed into the back end of another train after being given the wrong signal. At least two carriages were overturned.

At least two women and a child were among those killed, while five of those injured were in critical condition, the AP quoted Dr. Seemi Jamali, head of emergency at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, as saying.

Pakistan’s railway infrastructure is considered one of the worst in the world, having suffered years of decline from the colonial era, making accidents and fatalities a regular occurrence.