NEW DELHI: Nine people died on Saturday (Aug 26) after a fire broke out in a stationary train carriage in the southern Indian city of Madurai, in Tamil Nadu state.
The blaze started after a gas cylinder being used by some passengers to make tea on a stove exploded, Madurai district collector M S Sangeetha said, according to a video shot by ANI.
Local media reports said the passengers had illegally smuggled aboard the gas cylinder.
“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 told AFP.
“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.
More than 50 passengers were travelling in the carriage, which was detached from the train and parked separately at the station, Sangeetha told Reuters partner news agency ANI.
The fire, which broke out in the early hours, burned for a couple of hours before it was brought under control by firefighters, local media reported, which also said 20 people were injured in the accident.
The ANI video showed police officials inspecting the charred scene. Survivors had to break open doors to flee the compartment, according to witness accounts.
The incident comes after more than 250 people died in India’s deadliest rail crash in more than two decades when three trains were involved in a collision in the eastern state of Orissa in June.
Source: CNA
