Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said he was 'saddened' to learn of a train accident in India's Amritsar which claimed around 60 lives. "Saddened to learn of the tragic train accident in Amritsar, India. Condolences go to the families of the deceased," he tweeted.
Around 60 people are now known to have died when a train ploughed into a crowd of revelers watching a firework display in India, officials said Saturday. Dozens more were hurt in the accident, some of them seriously, and overwhelmed local hospitals ran out of space for the dead, forcing them to leave some bodies outside.
The disaster, near Amritsar in the north of the country on Friday, led to new demands for safety reforms to India´s accident-plagued railway system, which records thousands of deaths each year. Reports said the train hit scores of people who had gathered on tracks to watch the burning of a firework-packed effigy for a Hindu festival. Police said victims did not hear the Jalandhar-Amritsar express arriving because the noise was drowned out by firecrackers. Another train had narrowly missed the crowds two minutes earlier, officials said.