India train crash death toll rises to 146 as search for victims ends

Indian officials have officially ended the search for victims in the country’s deadliest train accident in years, setting the death toll at 146.

Rescuers in Pukhrayan spent the day using cranes to lift the last of the twisted metal wreckage to check for bodies underneath.

About 2,000 workers were clearing the tracks and checking for damage to the rail line in hopes of resuming traffic through one of India’s busiest railway junctions by Monday evening, railway official Amit Kumar says.

Rescuers work at the site after 14 coaches of an overnight passenger train rolled off the track near Pukhrayan village in Kanpur Dehat district of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Monday, November 21, 2016. (AP/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Rescuers work at the site after 14 coaches of an overnight passenger train rolled off the track near Pukhrayan village in Kanpur Dehat district of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Monday, November 21, 2016. (AP/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

The government has called for an investigation into what caused the accident, promising to punish anyone found responsible.

The passenger train was about midway through a 27-hour journey between the cities of Indore and Patna when it slid off the tracks at 3:10 a.m. Sunday. The impact was so strong that one of the coaches landed atop another, crushing the one below. Passengers were flung from their beds.

— AP

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