Help arrived within an hour: KRC chief

Konkan Railway Corporation Managing Director B Rajaram said the landslide that led the Mangalore-Mumbai Matsyagandha Express to derail between

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Vir and Karanjadi stations near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra early on Wednesday morning occurred just when the train was passing by the spot.

"The first boulders rolled down and hit the engine causing it to jump the rails and fall off the bridge, pulling three bogies down with it." he told reporters at the spot.

Official figures say 15 people were killed and 69 injured in the mishap. But reports from the spot said that around 20 people have been killed and over 100 injured.

The injured have been taken to hospitals in Mahad, Navi Mumbai and Mumbai.

Rajaram said the KRC's Emergency Coordination Group alerted all nearby hospitals just minutes after the mishap and help arrived at the spot in an hour's time.

He said the bogies hanging from the bridge were likely to be lifted by late evening. Track repairs he said, however, would take longer.