At least nine killed in Indian train fire sparked by passenger making tea
At least nine people were killed Saturday after a train coach parked in southern India caught fire when a passenger tried to make tea, officials said.
The coach, which had been detached from a train, was stationed at the Madurai railway yard in the southern state of Tamil Nadu when the fire broke out before dawn.
"It was a single, stationary coach booked by a private tourist operator. Somebody tried to make tea and it caused the fire," Madurai district spokesman Sali Thalapathi said.
"Nine people have died, three of them are women. Nine others are injured but their injuries are not life-threatening." None of the bodies had been identified so far, he added.
Footage showed huge flames leaping out of the windows of the train carriage. Some passengers managed to escape the inferno in time.
Local media reports said the passengers had illegally smuggled aboard a gas cylinder which exploded when they tried to use it.
India has one of the world's largest rail networks and has seen several disasters over the years, the worst in 1981 when a train derailed while crossing a bridge in Bihar state and plunged into a river below, killing 800 people.
(Source: AFP)
Russia holds strategic nuclear exercise
'So much anxiety': With one week to go, hope and fear surround US election
Obama urges voters to 'turn the page' on Trump
British protesters slam UK’s complicity in Gaza genocide on Balfour day
US surgeon haunted by Gaza children with ‘single gunshot wounds to head’
VIDEO | Iran's possible retaliation against Israel
VIDEO | Fatal Harvest: Escalating attacks on Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank
Hamas rejects temporary truce offer, calls for complete ceasefire in Gaza
Iran among top nuclear technology countries: AEOI chief
Democrats 'risk losing' election for backing Israeli war on Gaza, Lebanon: US journalist
Protesters remove busts of Israel's first president from Manchester Univ.
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
