Officials blamed an improperly set switch. At least 210 people died and 700 others were injured in 1990, when a train on a 500-mile overnight run south from the city of Multan to Karachi hit an empty freight train. In 2005, three trains crashed in a deadly chain-reaction after a train driver misread a signal, killing at least 127 people and injuring hundreds more in southern Pakistan. More than 70 people were killed when a train caught fire in 2019, in one of the worst train accidents in recent years. Khan, who came to power in 2018, had vowed to modernize the system’s poorly maintained signal system and aging tracks, and to ensure its safety mechanisms.īut train accidents have also been frequent under Mr. Promises by successive governments to overhaul the system have remained unfulfilled. Pakistan has an abysmal train-safety record, and the state-owned system is plagued by corruption and mismanagement.

“It is too early to say whether the accident was due to sabotage or due to the dilapidated condition of the train track,” Mr. Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Twitter that he was “shocked by the horrific train accident” and had ordered a “comprehensive investigation into railway safety fault lines.”Īzam Khan Swati, the railways minister, said the cause of the collision was being investigated. Army and paramilitary troops were already at the accident site, and two army helicopters were involved in evacuations. The Pakistan Army said military doctors and paramedical staff from a nearby base were taking part in the relief effort.

Several of the injured people were admitted to hospitals in the area, she said, adding that the death toll was likely to rise.

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