The death toll from the train accident that took place yesterday at the Bahanaga station in the Balasore district in India is still being updated. The confirmed dead, as reported to AFP by the director general of the fire brigade of the state of Odisha Sudhanshu Sarangi, are 288 . Sarangi also confirmed the fact that hundreds of other people, almost a thousand, were injured in the clash.

On the other hand, at least 2,000 rescuers are engaged in a race against time to extract people still alive from the carriages of the three trains that collided last night. Numerous wagons are still overturned and tangled on the tracks.

Last night's accident involved two passenger trains and a freight train , after one of the two passenger trains derailed.

As they are found, the bodies are transferred to a school in the city of Balasore, the city closest to the site of the disaster.

Throughout the night, the inhabitants were kept awake by the uninterrupted comings and goings of at least 120 ambulances carrying the wounded to the three closest hospitals.

In the hospitals, small and poorly equipped, doctors and nurses worked tirelessly in absolute chaos to deal with the more than 900 injured in the disaster , many of them in critical condition.

Responding to the calls spread across the media and on the web, hundreds of people spent the night in queues to donate blood in the mobile units set up in front of the hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Railways has announced a contribution of one million rupees (about 11,000 euros) for the families of the victims and 200,000 rupees (about 2,200 euros) for the most seriously injured.

(Unioneonline/L)