Jalgaon train accident caused by tea-seller's fire rumour: Ajit Pawar

Pune: Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister, stated on Thursday that the Jalgaon train catastrophe was caused by a "sheer rumour" about a fire by a tea seller inside the Pushpak Express, which caused fear and several passengers to jump out.

On Wednesday evening, some Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express passengers who got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident were run over by the Karnataka Express moving from Bengaluru to Delhi on adjacent tracks in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district.

Thirteen persons were killed and 15 injured in the accident, as per officials.

Speaking to the reporters in Pune, Pawar said, "A tea-seller from the pantry shouted about a fire having broken out in a coach." Two passengers from Shravasti in Uttar Pradesh heard it and conveyed the false alarm to others, leading to confusion and panic in their general coach and the adjoining one, he said.

Some of the scared passengers jumped off the train from both sides to save themselves, Pawar said.

As the train was speeding, a passenger pulled the alarm chain. "After the train halted, people started getting down and got run over by the Karnataka Express on the adjacent track," he said.

The impact was so powerful that several passengers lost their lives and the bodies got mutilated, Pawar said.

"The accident was the result of a sheer rumour about fire," the deputy CM said.

Of the 13 persons who died, 10 have been identified, he said.

The two passengers, who reportedly spread the rumour, were among those injured in the incident, he said.

The district guardian minister and officials reached the spot and after some time, the movement of trains resumed in both directions, he added.

With PTI inputs