India grieves train crash that killed 275

6/6/2023 5:45

        Families of the victims of India’s deadliest train crash in decades filled a hospital in Bhubaneswar city to identify and collect bodies of relatives, as railway officials recommended the country’s premier criminal investigating agency to probe the crash that killed 275 people.
        
        Distraught relatives of passengers killed in the crash Friday lined up outside the eastern city’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
        
        Meanwhile, survivors being treated in hospitals said they were still trying to make sense of the horrific disaster.
        
        Outside the hospital, two large screens cycled through photos of the victims, their faces so bloodied and charred that they were hardly recognizable.
        
        Each body had a number assigned to it, and relatives stood near the screen and watched as the photos changed, looking out for details like clothing for clues. Many of them said they had spent days on desperate journeys from neighboring states, travelling in multiple trains, buses or rented cars to identify and claim bodies, a process that stretched into a third day due to the gruesome nature of the injuries.
        
        So far only 45 bodies have been identified, and 33 have been handed over to relatives.