At least 32 passengers were charred to death, most of them in sleep, and eight injured when the speeding Secunderabad-Kakinada Gouthami Express train caught fire in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh in the wee hours on Friday.
The fire broke out in a sleeper coach at 0115 hours near Kesamudram railway station, about 200 kms from Hyderabad, and soon spread to four other bogies leading to heavy casualties, Chief PRO of South Central Railways P Krishnaiah told reporters.
With the train moving at a speed of 100 kms per hour, the fire, which broke out in S-9 coach spread rapidly billowing out large plumes of smoke.
The tragedy struck when the passengers were fast asleep making it impossible for many of them to escape from the blaze.
Such was the impact of the raging fire that the bodies of some of the passengers were charred beyond recognition, making it difficult for authorities to ascertain the exact number of casualties.
Some passengers died due to suffocation. As forensic experts inspected the badly-mangled coaches, there are fears that the toll may go up as a heap of skeletons, skulls and burnt flesh still remained to be cleared.
The dead included a pregnant woman and three physically-challenged persons who could not escape the blaze even as many others jumped out of the running train. According to preliminary investigation, an electric short-circuit could have led to the fire
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