- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
Survivors recall horror of deadly double Indian train crash
Survivors of an Indian double train crash that killed nine people described on Tuesday their terror when a driver missed a signal and rammed a goods train into a passenger express.
The force of the crash on Monday was so strong that one carriage was initially thrust high into the air, precariously balanced on another.
Heavy goods carriages were flung off the tracks, lying high in tumbled piles.
"I did not feel like I was going to survive," said one passenger, Arti Roy, who lost her belongings when the carriages crumpled, twisted and then flipped off the rails.
The incident in West Bengal state is the latest to hit India's creaking rail network, which carries millions of passengers each day -- and the most recent reported failure of drivers missing basic signals.
Jahangir Alam, 35, who lives near the crash site in the Phansidewa area of Darjeeling district, rushed to offer his help.
He said the sight of the wrecked trains terrified him.
"These accidents that are happening are very dangerous," he said.
"Whenever we think about travelling by train, we feel scared inside."
Jaya Varma Sinha, chairman of India's Railway Board, said that the driver of the goods train had "disregarded the signal" and hit the back of the passenger train.
The driver and his co-driver both died in the crash.
Sinha said the casualties could have been worse, but a guard wagon and two others carrying post at the back of the passenger train took the brunt of the crash.
- 'Horrific experience' -
Officials said Tuesday that the number of dead had risen to nine after one of the around 50 injured died in hospital.
"The death toll from the accident has risen to nine, with the death of an injured passenger," Eastern Railway official Kausik Mitra told AFP.
"Around 40 injured people are still admitted to the hospital, but their condition is stable."
But the express train -- minus its final five carriages which were derailed or damaged -- was able to limp on and continue its journey.
It reached Kolkata with about 500 passengers on Monday night.
"It was a horrific experience," said Antara Das, 35, told AFP. "God has saved us."
Trains resumed operating on parallel tracks, with work to repair the line and clear the twisted metal debris of the carriages expected to finish later Tuesday.
Many of the carriages have since been cleared from the lines, pushed onto the grassy verge.
As trains passed them on Tuesday morning, passengers stared out at the wreckage.
India has one of the world's largest rail networks and has seen several disasters over the years, the worst in 1981 when a train derailed while crossing a bridge in Bihar state, killing an estimated 800 people.
In June last year, a three-train collision killed nearly 300 people in Odisha state.
In that crash, a packed passenger train was mistakenly diverted onto a loop line and slammed into a stationary goods train loaded with iron ore.
Three railway employees were later charged with culpable homicide and destruction of evidence.
In October, at least 14 people died when two passenger trains collided after one overshot a signal in Andhra Pradesh state.
The railways ministry said that drivers had been distracted because they were watching cricket on a phone, as hosts India played England during the one-day World Cup.
But in recent years, India has been investing huge sums of money to upgrade its network with modern stations and electronic signalling systems.
D.Sawyer--AMWN