Nine passengers were charred to death in their sleep when a blaze ripped through three coaches of the Bandra-Dehradun Express in Thane district in the wee hours today, ten days after a fire mishap in a train left 26 people dead.
The fire erupted in one coach and soon spread to other two coaches when the passengers were sleeping at about 2.50 AM.
A woman and four men are among the nine dead while the rest were yet to be identified, said Western Railway PRO Sharat Chandra.
Four persons sustained minor injuries, said police.
The blaze-affected coaches were S-2 S-3 and S-4 which carried the maximum numbers of passengers (64) followed by 54 in S-2 and three in S-3.
The train continued on its journey later in the morning after the three burnt carriages were detached and the fire was extinguished, Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar said.
Many passengers managed to escape from the burning and smoke-filled coaches by breaking open the back doors, a survivor said.
Fire had raged through an air-conditioned coach of the Bangalore-Nanded Express train on December 28 in Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh, killing 26 people and injuring 13 others.
Railway sources said short circuit cannot be ruled out in today's incident as burnt cables were found under the electric board of S-3 coach.
Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge ordered an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh each to the next of kin of those killed.
Rs one lakh will be given to those seriously injured and Rs 50,000 to those who received minor injuries, Kumar said.
The Commissioner of Railway Safety will conduct an inquiry into the fire incident, he said.
Though railways claim to have taken various measures to prevent fire in trains, such mishaps have recurred with worrying frequency.
There had been nine fire incidents in trains claiming 56 lives in 2012-2013.
An air-conditioned coach of the Bangalore-Nanded Express train caught fire in the early hours on December 28 in Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh, killing 26 people and injuring 13 others.
On June 30, 2012, 35 passengers were killed and 25 injured when a coach of Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express had caught fire near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.
