15 dead in Pakistani train crash

HYDERABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani express train packed with holiday travellers came off the rails on Wednesday and at least 15 people were killed and about 100 hurt, an ambulance service official said.

The Karachi Express train was on its way from the southern city to Lahore when most of its carriages came off the rails near the town of Mehrabpur, officials said.

"We’ve counted 15 bodies and dozens are injured, at least 100," said senior ambulance service official Faisal Edhi.

"Some people are still trapped so the numbers may rise," he said.

A railway official said 12 of the train’s 16 carriages had come off the rails but district police chief Abdul Hadi Bullo who was at the scene said he could see 14 derailed carriages, some in a field beside the track.

Bullo said he had called for cutting equipment to reach people trapped in the wreckage.

The cause of the crash, about 400 km north of the city of Karachi, was not known, railway officials said.

A man on the train, reached by mobile telephone, said earlier he could hear people crying out for help.

"I can see several carriages are quite a way from the track and I can hear screaming," said the traveller, Mohammad Salim.

The train crashed at about 2.30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, British time). Many of those on board were believed .....continued below

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(Reporting by Faisal Aziz; Editing by Robert Birsel and David Fox)