Nine killed in India train crash

AT least nine people have been killed and 18 others injured when a tractor pulling a wagon loaded with people was hit by a train in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

The accident happened at an unmanned level crossing near the town of Bijnor.
The wagon was carrying people returning from a ceremony at a Hindu temple.

There are nearly 15,000 unmanned crossings on Indian railways and hundreds of people are killed on these crossings every year.

The chief of Bijnor police HN Singh told BBC Hindi that 30 people were travelling in the wagon when the passenger train hit it early yesterday.

Safety standards on India’s massive state-run railway network, which operates 9,000 passenger trains and carries some 23 million passengers every day, has been an ongoing concern amid a spate of accidents.