Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin have declared one-day state mourning in the wake of the tragic train accident in Odisha’s Balasore which has killed nearly 270 people and left around 900 people injured. Pre-scheduled state celebrations in Odisha and Tamil Nadu were also cancelled on Saturday, June 3. Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s 98th birth anniversary celebrations, too, stand cancelled.
On June 2, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin expressed his condolences to bereaved family members. He also directed officials to ensure that helplines were set up, and deployed officials to help with the rescue operations in Odisha. He said that he has asked Tamil Nadu Transport Minister Sivasankar SS and three IAS officers to rush to Odisha and help rescue the Tamil people who were involved in the accident.
Meanwhile, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik visited the accident site on Saturday and took stock of the situation. The accident happened at around 7.30 pm on Friday, June 2, near Odisha’s Balasore when 10-12 coaches of the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed and fell on the opposite track, after crashing into a goods train, according to initial reports. After some time, another train from Bengaluru to Howrah crashed into the Coromandel Express’s derailed coaches.
Speaking to a television channel, Odisha Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena said there had been around 270 deaths according to the information coming in from the district officials. “We expect to find more bodies. Our focus now is to rescue as many people as we can. Right now, there are seven national and four state disaster rescue teams,” he said.