Rail communication between Sylhet and the rest of the country was suspended for hours yesterday after the derailment of a fuel oil-laden train in Sreemangal. Meanwhile, two people died after a train hit a bus in Gazipur.
In Moulvibazar’s Sreemangal, the derailment of seven wagons of the train occurred around 11:40am, which caused the fuel to spill at Satgaon Rail Station.
Till the filing the report at 6:30pm, a rescue and repair operation was underway and railway officials hoped that rail communication would resume early today.
Immediately after the incident, locals thronged the spot and stole large amounts of spilled oil.
Many were seen collecting oil in buckets, jar and other pots.
“People seemed to be in a festive mood and very happy about successfully taking the spilled oil,” said Rajesh Bhowmick, a passerby who was traveling in the area.
Contacted, Shakawat Hosain, assistant station master of Sreemangal rail station, said the seven derailed wagons together contained around 1.60 lakhs litre of fuel.
How much fuel was spilled could not yet be calculated, he added.
Contacted, Alamgir Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Srimangal Railway Police Station, said additional police have been deployed to prevent the looting of fuel.
Dulal Chandra Das, the railway’s senior deputy-assistant engineer, said the rescue operation has already started. It would take five to six hours more to complete rescue operation and to resume train communication.
He was talking to The Daily Star at around 6:30pm last evening.
Meanwhile in Gazipur, two people were killed and four others injured when a train hit a bus at Sonakhali level crossing in Gazipur’s Kaliakoir upazila early yesterday.
Rail communication between Dhaka and northern parts of the country remained suspended for five hours since the accident took place around 4:30am.
It occurred when the Dhaka-bound Nilsagar Express train from Chilahati hit the bus, said Monowar Hossain Chowdhury, OC of Kaliakoir Police Station.
The train stopped after dragging the bus half kilometer ahead, leaving two of its passengers dead, he added.
One of the dead was identified as Masud Rana, 35.
Locals rescued the injured and took them to Kaliakoir Upazila Health Complex.
Md Shajahan, stationmaster of Joydevpur Rail Station of Gazipur, said the train services between Dhaka and the northern districts resumed around 9:30am yesterday morning after a team from the local fire service removed the bus from the rail tracks.
(Our correspondents from Moulvibazar and Gazipur contributed to the report.)