The death toll in a traincrash in southern Pakistan rose to 56 on Tuesday, a railwayspokeswoman said, the latest accident to highlight a brokenrailway system that dates back to the 19th century.
A train smashed into derailed carriages of another train onMonday, killing at least 36 people and injuring over 100.
The toll rose to 56 after bodies were retrieved overnightfrom mangled coaches strewn across the tracks, Pakistan Railwaysspokeswoman Nazia Jabeen told Reuters.
Another 23 injured passengers are still under treatment, shesaid, adding the rest of them were sent to their destinations.
Rescue operations have been completed, said statements fromthe railway and Pakistani military, which worked at the sitealong with police and other rescuers.
One side of the two rail tracks have been cleared and workwas in progress to clear the other one to help restore traffic.
Several carriages of a train derailed and fell across theadjacent track in the Ghotki district on Monday. Within minutes,a second train, coming from the other direction, smashed intothem.
“The driver tried to apply emergency brakes but thelocomotive hit the infringing coaches,” Pakistan Railways saidin an initial report.
“We saw a terrifying scene here,” a resident Sher Mohammadtold Reuters TV. “We brought water, picked up children.Passengers who were coming out of the train were mostly inagony,” he said.
The trains were carrying a total of 1,388 passengers.
Accidents on the decaying rail system are common.
In 2005, in the same district, about 130 people were killedwhen a crowded passenger train rammed into another at a stationand a third train struck the wreckage.
Successive governments have for years been trying to securefunds to upgrade the system, including a planned new rail trackcalled ML-1 as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative ofenergy and infrastructure projects
