Western Indian train crash kills at least 33

At least 33 people died when a train derailed and crashed at the entrance to a tunnel in western India, railway officials said…

At least 33 people died when a train derailed and crashed at the entrance to a tunnel in western India, railway officials said today.

The train crashed late last night when it hit some boulders that had rolled on to the track due to heavy rains and landslides, the officials said.

Although the death toll had earlier been put at 23, another 10 bodies were pulled out today and rescue operations were continuing into the night.

The train, from the port city of Karwar, crashed about 575 km south of India's financial capital Bombay, where it was headed.

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Railway spokesman Mr Nandu Telang said four coaches of the train had jumped the tracks and one of them had rammed into the coach in front, trapping it against the mountainside.

India has one of the world's largest railway networks with almost 14,000 trains carrying more than 13 million passengers a day. It has about 300 accidents a year.

Yesterday's accident was the most serious on the western coastal rail corridor, called the Konkan Railway, built across treacherous hills and touted as a major engineering feat when it opened five years ago.