Indian train crash kills 102
(CNN)
Updated: 2005-10-30 16:20

At least 102 people died and 92 others were injured when a passenger train derailed in southern India Saturday as it attempted to cross tracks washed away by a flood, police said.

Rescuers try to reach survivors in the seven coaches which ended submerged after the crash.

The incident occurred about 4:15 a.m. in the Andhra Pradesh state near the town of Valigonda. Seven coaches of the 15-coach train remained in the water, and it was not known how many people remained inside. Each coach has a capacity of about 60 people.

Rescue workers were using cranes to retrieve the coaches from the water, and using acetylene torches to open them, authorities said.

The train was crossing a bridge flanking a reservoir when it derailed, as a flood of water had washed the tracks away, said Krishnaiah Panabaka, chief public relations officer for India's state-run South Central Railway.

Hundreds of rescue workers were at the scene, he said, and the railway protection force was called in to assist. Also, the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force were on scene. Conditions were difficult, Panabaka said. A series of high-level Indian officials were also en route.

The train, the Repalle-Secunderabad Delta Fast Passenger, was en route from Repalle to Secunderabad. Passengers on the train's other coaches were evacuated in buses.

Andra Pradesh has been experiencing torrential rains after a slow-moving tropical depression made landfall there on Friday. There have been reports of other railway lines and roads washed away. The rain continued Saturday, adding to the difficulty of rescue operations.