Odisha rail crash: Hotline opened for Bangladeshis

Bangladesh deputy high commission in Kolkata has issued a hotline number for Bangladeshis to get information on Bangladeshis who might’ve been travelling in the Coromandel Express that met with a terrible fate on Friday night in Odisha, when it collided with two other trains on the tracks in a deadly accident that has already taken over 280 lives.

The hotline number is +919038353533 (Whatsapp). The Bangladesh deputy high commission announced the hotline number in a press release on Friday night.

Many Bangladeshis who go to India for medical treatment travel on that rail route to travel to Chennai from Kolkata on the Coromandel Express, one of the three trains in the accident.

The deputy high commission said they have been in constant contact with the Indian railway authorities and the Odisha state government.

The accident took place 300 kilometres south of Kolkata in Odisha on Friday evening. Many are still trapped inside the train and the rescuers are pulling out lifeless bodies from the mangle.

Spokesperson of the Indian railways Amitabh Sharma said, a few compartments of the Coromandel Express got derailed in Baleshwar area.

At the same time, a Kolkata bound train was heading towards Bengaluru. That train collided into the derailed compartments of the Coromandel Express. A goods train which was parked at the site also got involved in the accident.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to families of the bereaved.