1st LD Writethru: 40 injured in train accident in northern India

At least 40 people were injured when an express train derailed near the town of Kanpur in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh Wednesday morning, a senior railway official said.

However, there have been no fatal casualties in the mishap so far, the official said, adding that all the injured were admitted to a nearby hospital.

"The mishap took place near Rura station in Kanpur's Dehat district around 5.30 a.m. (local time) when as many as 14 coaches of Sealdah-Ajmer Express derailed, with two falling into a drain," he said, on condition of anonymity.

Local TV channels reported that rescuers are on the spot and are scouting the coaches to bring out anyone trapped inside, and showed footage of derailed coaches.

Indian Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that he is "personally monitoring the situation" and has directed all concerned to ensure rescue and relief. "Thorough investigation will be carried out to ascertain the cause (of the accident)," he tweeted.

The mishap came just a month after at least 140 people were killed and over 200 injured when 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express train derailed in Kanpur's Dehat district. Kanpur is a major railway junction and hundreds of trains pass through it every day.

Indian Railways is one of the world's largest train networks and criss-crosses the country from north to south.

But train accidents are fairly common in India, where much of the railway equipment is out of date. Last year, the government announced investments of 137 billion U.S. dollars over five years to modernize and expand the railways. Endit