Trains Crash Near Bombay; 100 Dead

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 17

Trains Crash Near Bombay; 100 Dead

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) BOMBAY, June 13. Two Bombay suburban electric trains collided today, killing at least 100 persons, according to first reports.

The reports said 120 more persons were injured. Each train carried more than 1500 passengers. The city’s railways, on which two million persons travel daily, were disrupted while firemen, police and doctors struggled to rescue hundreds of trapped commuters. The collision took place at the height of the morning rush hour. There was no immediate explanation of its cause.

Matunga Road station, on the northern outskirts of the city, is near the junction of two rail links—one coming from Santa Cruz, where the international airport is situated, and the other a loop off the main line from Poona.

Rail traffic is heavy at the morning rush hour, and carriages are usually full to overflowing with workers travelling from outlying areas to jobs in the great commercial and industrial centre. Bombay is India’s largest port, and the greater Bombay region has a population of more than four million.

Bombay firemen and home guards who rushed to the accident asked for oxy-acetylene equipment to help extricate passengers trapped in the

first coach of the northbound train. The Maharashtra State Home Minister, Mr D. S. Desai, the general manager, Mr Ratan Lal, and other officials of the central railway went to the scene of the accident.