Five persons, including a Congress MLA from Karnataka, were killed and two others injured when a lorry carrying granite boulder hit the Bangalore-Nanded Express in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh in the early hours on Monday.
The Anantapur district borders Karnataka and is located around 350 km from Hyderabad.
The driver of the lorry and its cleaner died in the tragedy, the senior police official said. Two persons sustained injuries and they were shifted to hospitals in Bangalore. Rescue work has been launched by railway officials and local police.
The lorry sped onto the railway track despite the railway gate and the brakes of the trolley appeared to have failed, he said. The AC bogie was crushed and three sleeper coaches of the train derailed in the incident.
He said that the cause of the accident, as to whether the brakes of the trolley failed or its driver was drunk or he fell asleep, would be ascertained in the investigation. He also sought an ex gratia of more than Rs 10 lakh to the families of the
Andhra Pradesh Information Minister P Raghunath Reddy, who hails from Anantapur district, told reporters that postmortem has been conducted on the five bodies of the victims at the Penukonda Hospital in the district.
A lorry hit the train at Madakasira railway gate and the granite boulder crashed against the first-class carriage of the train, DIG of Anantapur, K Satyanarayana, said. Four persons, including Congress MLA Venkatesh Naik from Deodurg in Raichur
Congress MLA killed as lorry rams into Bangalore-Nanded express