At least four killed as train derails in India

By Shivani Tanna and Baranjot Kaur

(Reuters) -At least four people were killed and about 80 injured as an express train derailed in the Indian state of Bihar on Wednesday, a district official told Reuters.

Twenty-one coaches of the North-East Express train, which runs from Delhi to Assam, derailed at the Raghunathpur railway station in Bihar’s Buxar district around 9:35 p.m. (1605 GMT) on Wednesday, Tarun Prakash, general manager of East Central Railway, said.

Three coaches overturned, a police official said. The cause of the derailment was not immediately known.

Several other passengers and goods trains were diverted due to the accident, media reports said.

India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said on social media network X that the train’s evacuation and rescue were complete.

The relief train for the stranded passengers departed early Thursday, the East Central Railway said in a post on social media platform X.

In June, India experienced its worst train crash in two decades in Odisha, which resulted in the death of at least 288 people.

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna and Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates)