August 4, 1999
Web posted at: 1:47 a.m. EDT (0547 GMT)

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GAISAL, India -- Weary rescue workers on Wednesday took their first break from nearly two days of clearing wreckage and bodies from the site of Monday's horrific train crash that killed at least 275 people.

"These people have been working non-stop since the accident, they needed some rest," a district official said.

After a four-hour break, search operations resumed at 5 a.m., although hopes of finding survivors in the twisted metal wreckage were slim.

Officials now put the death toll at 275 dead and 297 injured.

The Awadh-Assam Express train, bound for Guwahati in the northeastern state of Assam, collided with a New Delhi-bound train at Gaisal Station in West Bengal state, about 310 miles (499 km) north of Calcutta.

The two trains were traveling at about 60 miles (96 km) per hour when they crashed just before 2 a.m.

The Awadh-Assam Express train may have been on the wrong track for between four and nine miles (7 and 14 km) before hitting the Brahmaputra Mail, said Railway Board chairman V.K. Aggarwal.

Officials were planning to question four signal operators who were on duty at the time of the crash. All four fled the scene, but three returned to work late Tuesday. One was still missing, officials said.

India's railway minister, Nitish Kumar, announced his resignation over the crash, the worst in India since a 1995 wreck near New Delhi killed 358 people.

"Yesterday's accident cannot be excused," Kumar said. "It was criminal negligence and I own moral responsibility for it."

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee refused to accept Kumar's resignation.

On the gruesome accident site in a remote corner of northeastern India, large cranes lifted twisted and charred rail cars off each other to allow workers to search for survivors and victims.

Rescue and recovery work was slow at the scene, where 110 degree Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) temperatures hampered workers and tens of thousands of onlookers crowded the area.

Anxious family members were among the crowds. Nikhil Banerjee, an executive from New Delhi, has not heard from two uncles, an aunt and two nephews who were aboard one of the trains.

"I have sent my nephew to the accident site to visit local hospitals as my relatives might be among the injured. But so far their fate is unknown," he said.

Among those killed were 22 soldiers on their way to and from Assam, a remote state in northeastern India wracked by separatist violence, the Indian army said

"Oh, Lord," said the soldiers' commander, Brig. A. Parmar. "Instead of death at the war front, they met their ghastly end here."

Most of the train coaches were crushed, many of them still smoldering as rescuers crawled in to try to pull out badly burnt bodies.

The bodies of dozens of victims had not yet been identified or claimed. Prashant said only 22 of the recovered bodies could be recognized since most of the victims were so badly mangled.

Most of the 2,500 passengers aboard the two trains were sleeping when the collision happened.

"I thought we were all dead, said Anil Kumar Shukla, who survived along with all of his family. They had originally booked seats on a car that was demolished, but changed to a sleeper coach minutes before boarding the train.

After the collision, Shukla's family broke through a car window.

"We counted ourselves, and we were all alive," he said.

The Indian government ordered an inquiry into the accident and announced it would convene a commission to investigate the cause of recent crashes on India's rails.

The country has one of the largest rail networks in the world, carrying 11 million passengers per day on tracks that are often poorly maintained.

Six previous fatal accidents in India this year have resulted in more than 150 dead.

Authorities resumed train service between Assam and New Delhi on Tuesday after clearing one of the tracks.

Correspondent Satinder Bindra, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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