Blast hits Indian passenger train; at least 15 reported dead and 150 injured

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Blast hits Indian train, at least 15 reported dead

CALCUTTA, India — An overnight passenger train was derailed by an explosion then hit by another train early Friday as it traveled through a rebel stronghold of eastern India, officials said. A top government official said at least 15 people had been killed and 150 injured.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters that 13 passenger cars on a train out of Calcutta were derailed by the explosion, in a rural area about 90 miles (150 kilometers) south of the city. Three of those coaches were then hit by a cargo train coming from the other direction.

She said the explosion was believed to have been set off by Maoist rebels, who had called a four-day strike for the area starting Friday.

Banerjee said that because of the threat of militant attacks, trains must travel slowly through the region where the blast occurred in order to look out for bombs.

Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told NDTV television that at least 15 people had died and at least 150 more had been injured.

The passenger train was heading to the Indian city of Kurla.

The blast occurred in an isolated, rural stronghold of India’s Maoist rebels, known as Naxalites, who have stepped up their attacks in recent months.

Earlier this month, the rebels ambushed a bus in central India, killing 31 police officers and civilians.

The rebels, who have tapped into the rural poor’s growing anger at being left out of the country’s economic gains, are now present in 20 of the country’s 28 states and have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, according to the Home Ministry.