At least 34 people have been killed, with others badly hurt and trapped in wreckage, after a Pakistani express train ploughed into derailed carriages in the south of the country.
Rescue workers were on Monday using heavy lifting machinery to reach those still left injured inside the badly mangled carriages, but the death toll was expected to mount during the day.
The collision around 4am on Monday in Ghotki district was the latest deadly train incident to strike the rundown rail network in the nation of more than 220 million people.
Imran Khan, the Prime Minister, ordered an immediate investigation, while his political opponents were quick to attack his failure to improve safety on the network.
Railway officials said carriages from the Millat Express had become derailed near Daharki and spilled onto neighbouring track as the service made its way north from the port city of Karachi. The oncoming Sir Syed Express from Rawalpindi to Karachi then ploughed into the rolling stock. Four railway employees were reported to be among the dead.
A local official said 13 to 14 carriages had derailed and six were “completely destroyed” in the smash. Local news footage showed them rolled over and badly damaged.
Usman Abdullah, Ghotki's deputy commissioner, told Geo News: “This is a challenging task. It will take time to use heavy machinery to free citizens [still trapped]." he said.
Pakistan's trains have suffered from decades of underinvestment under successive governments and the smash was at least the fifth deadly rail accident since Mr Khan took office three years ago.
The former cricketer said he was “shocked by the horrific train accident at Ghotki early this morning” and was ordering a “comprehensive investigation into railway safety fault-lines”.
Senator Sherry Rehman, an opposition leader with the Pakistan Peoples Party, called for the resignation of the railways minister.
She said: “My heart goes out to the families of the deceased and grievously hurt. In other countries the minister would resign, especially after so many train wrecks in the last three years.”
Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the opposition in the national assembly, said the railways were “in an utter shambles today in terms of safety and finances”.
Train accidents are common in Pakistan, where underinvestment has left the network with poorly maintained track, signals and trains.
In February 2020, at least 19 people were killed when a train collided with a passenger bus near Sindh’s Rohri. Only three months before that, more than 70 had died in an inferno on a moving train when carriages caught fire near Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab.
Troops joined the rescue efforts on Monday morning, according to a statement from the military's information wing. Military doctors, as well as paramedics and engineers were at the site, and a specialist search team was being flown by helicopter from Rawalpindi.
Chinese investment granted as part of Beijing's Belt and Road initiative to build a modern day Silk Road had been due to upgrade Pakistan's trains, but plans have been delayed in a disagreement over financing.
