Another 1,000 passengers are said to have been injured, many of them seriously. Recovery teams hold out little hope of finding any more survivors. Cranes and metal cutting equipment brought in by the Army are being used to pry apart the 15 tangled carriages. Strained emergency services are taking bodies covered with white shrouds to a nearby town in the remote area of the state of West Bengal. An inquiry has been called into how two express trains can end up on the same track heading in opposite directions.
Initial reports blame signal failure and human error.
India has the world's second largest train network, carrying more than 13 million passengers across the country every day, but it suffers from a poor safety record. The local hospitals of the small towns near the crash site are being stretched to the limit trying to cope with the flood of injured. Sympathy World leaders are offering condolences to the Indian people. As the extent of the disaster became clearer, world leaders could only express horror and sympathy. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was shocked by the crash.