Three passenger trains collide at station in southern Pakistan

GHOTKI, Pakistan -- Three trains collided in a deadly chain reaction in southern Pakistan after a train driver misread a signal early Wednesday, killing at least 127 people and injuring hundreds in the country's worst crash in more than a decade, police and railway officials said.

The nighttime accident jolted passengers awake to a horrifying smashup that left metal, glass and body parts strewn across a remote railway station near Ghotki. Rescuers frantically cut through twisted metal to reach survivors, as ambulances and buses ferried the injured to nearby hospitals.

"We woke up to a huge bang," said Suraya, a 22-year-old woman who, like many Pakistanis, goes by one name. "I fell down to the floor. Then I heard the screams."

At the scene, villagers and surviving passengers -- some splattered with blood -- peered into the wreckage looking for victims. Massive train wheels, springs and other train parts ripped from carriages were scattered between the tracks.

Cars that had jumped the tracks lay on their sides. Others were crumpled into heaps of metal after crushing motorcycles, cooking pots and other items near the crash site. Bodies of victims were wrapped in white cloth and piled together.

Local police chief Agha Mohammed Tahir said 127 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage.

"It is a very gruesome situation," he said.

Misread signal

Abdul Wahab Awan, general manager of Pakistan Railways, blamed the driver of the night-coach Karachi Express for misreading a signal and rear-ending another passenger train.

"The crash occurred because of misreading of a signal by the driver of Karachi Express and it rammed the Quetta Express, which was not moving," Awan said.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf offered his condolences to the injured and the families of those killed and promised that anyone guilty of negligence would be prosecuted. He said at least 135 people were seriously injured.

Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, the national crisis manager at the Interior Ministry, ruled out sabotage, saying the crash was "a pure accident."

The accident occurred at about 4 a.m. near Ghotki, some 370 miles northeast of Karachi, in remote Sindh province.

Thirteen cars derailed

The Quetta Express was traveling from the eastern city of Lahore to the southwestern city of Quetta when a technical problem forced it to stop at the station. Technicians were working on the train when it was struck by the Karachi Express.

The impact pushed three carriages onto an adjacent track, and they in turn were hit by the Tezgam Express, heading from Karachi north to Rawalpindi, causing more derailments, said Abdul Aziz, a senior controller at Pakistan Railways.

In all, some 13 cars derailed.

Chaudhry Nazir Ahmed, a railroad official in Ghotki, said the three trains were carrying about 1,000 people.

More than 100 injured people were taken to the Civil Hospital in the nearby town of Sukkur, said Dr. Iqbal Ahmed. At least 12 people were in critical condition, some with lost limbs or massive head injuries, he said.

Rescuers had to cut through metal to get to some of the injured, said Tahir, the local police chief.

"They are being pulled out every minute," he said.

Pakistan's railways are antiquated, and there have been many accidents in recent years -- including several at Ghotki -- blamed on faulty equipment or human error.

A train carrying 800 passengers from Karachi to Lahore slammed into a parked freight train at Ghotki on June 8, 1991, killing more than 100 people. Authorities blamed staff negligence for that accident.

In December 1989, a train crash near Sangi, a town 35 miles from Ghotki, killed 400 people.