Balasore train accident toll mounts to 292

Cuttack: The death toll in the Balasore train accident rose to 292 on Sunday with a 24-year-old passenger from West Bengal succumbing to his injuries at a state-run hospital here, an official said.

Paltu Naskar was undergoing treatment at the central ICU of SCB Medical College and Hospital and breathed his last during the day, he said.

Naskar was a resident of South 24 Parganas of West Bengal.

He was injured in the train accident on June 2 and admitted to the hospital in critical condition, an East Coast Railway official said, adding that the person was on ventilator support from June 17 as his condition deteriorated.

Of the 205 injured people admitted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital, 45 are still under treatment, including 12 in ICU, an official of the health facility said.

“Of the 12 patients in ICU, the condition of two persons remain critical," he said.

Altogether 287 people died on the spot in the triple train accident earlier this month and five others succumbed to their injuries in hospitals, while 1,208 were injured.

The Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Super Fast Express and a goods train were involved in the pile-up, now being described as one of India’s worst train accidents.

The Coromandel Express crashed into a stationary goods train, derailing most of its coaches around 7 pm on June 2 near the Bahanaga Bazar station.

A few coaches of the Coromandel Express whiplashed the last few coaches of the Bengaluru-Howrah Express which was passing by at the same time.

Meanwhile, 81 bodies remain unidentified at the AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

Though 70 people have already given blood samples for DNA testing, the reports are still awaited, an official said.

The authorities of AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Saturday wrote a letter to the Delhi-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory to send the DNA sampling test reports for at least 15 people as their family members were eagerly waiting for such verification reports.

Meanwhile, the Indian Railways, in a public notice, has appealed to relatives of the deceased in the Bahanaga train accident to come forward and give their DNA samples to establish their identity and relationship with the deceased.