NELLORE (ANDHRA PRADESH): Thirty-two people were on Monday charred to death and 25 others injured when a fire broke out in a coach of New Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express near here with railway minister Mukul Roy indicating that there could have been a blast.
Additional DG railways VSK Kaumudi said that 32 bodies have been recovered so far from the charred S-11 bogie of the train.
South Central Railway officials in Hyderabad said 25 people have been injured in the disaster and have been admitted to different hospitals.
The Nellore station manager noticed the fire in one of the bogies of the train at 4.15am and alerted officials. Two fire tenders were rushed to the spot immediately to put out the fire and they managed to restrict the blaze to the S-11 bogie, they said.
In Kolkata, the railway minister said, "Some of the injured passengers admitted to hospitals and a gateman at one of the level crossings near Nellore station heard a loud sound when the fire occurred in the coach".
Roy said that the divisional railway manager had also said that there was a report of a blast even as the minister maintained that nothing can be "excluded" as to what caused the fire.
