3rd LD Writethru: 2 British tourists killed in India's train derailment

Two British tourists were killed and eight others injured as a chartered tourist train enroute to the Indian Himalayan resort Shimla derailed just minutes after departing from Kalka railway station in the northern state of Haryana on Saturday, said police.

Earlier, media reports said over 20 others were injured in the incident.

Local daily Hindustan Times online quoted police as saying that the passengers on the train, chartered by a noted historian and writer named Raja Bhasin, also included a group of 37 British nationals on board.

While two British tourists died on the spot, eight injured included three Indian nationals.

The injured have been shifted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in the nearby city of Chandigarh.

The railway trip from Kalka to Shimla is a highly popular tourist attraction for British tourists, as it was build over 100 years by the British for its summer capital Shimla in an uphill climb amid breath taking landscapes and classic engineering works.

The train, also called "boy train" due to its small coaches and narrow tracks, is also a UNESCO heritage and a trump tour program of the Indian Tourism Ministry.

The incident took place on the same day as a passenger train derailed early Saturday in the southern state of Karnataka, killing two passengers and injuring over 10. Endi