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Fire on Indian Nanded-Bangalore express kills at least 23

 

Saturday 28 December 2013 10:57 GMT
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Indian rescue personnel use a stretcher to carry a body near a charred carriage of the Nanded-Bangalore Express. Authorities said most of those who died suffocated in the coaches that were filled with thick black smoke.
Indian rescue personnel use a stretcher to carry a body near a charred carriage of the Nanded-Bangalore Express. Authorities said most of those who died suffocated in the coaches that were filled with thick black smoke.

A fire broke out on an express train in southern India and killed at least 23 passengers, officials said.

A spokesman for the railways, CS Gupta, said 67 passengers were in the train carriage when the fire started early this morning.

The train in Andhra Pradesh state was brought to a halt and firefighters and medics have retrieved at least 23 bodies, including two children, according to the officials. The others escaped.

Mr Gupta said that most of those who died suffocated in the coaches that were filled with thick black smoke.

The train was travelling from Bangalore to Nanded in the western state of Maharashtra.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, Mr Gupta said.

AP

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