India train kills 28 Hindu pilgrims crossing tracks

A speeding train ran over pilgrims crossing railroad tracks in eastern India, killing at least 28 people, and an angry mob beat up the driver after the accident early Monday, officials said. The country is known for its vast but decrepit railway network, where on average 40 people die every day, some from falling off of overcrowded trains. 

The pilgrims were crossing the rail tracks at the station in Dhamara Ghat, a small town in Bihar state, when they were struck by the Rajya Rani Express train, said Dinesh Chandra Yadav, a local member of parliament. Several other people were injured.

India's Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge has announced a compensation of $7,903 to the family of the victims and $1,580 to each of those injured.

Monday was the last day of month-long Hindu prayer ceremonies at the Katyayani temple near Dhamara Ghat, and the pilgrims were returning from morning prayers.

An angry crowd pulled the driver out of the train and beat him up.

Yadav said the driver died, but Arunendra Kumar, a top railway official, said the driver was at a hospital in critical condition.

The agitated mob then got all the passengers out of the train and set some coaches on fire. Groups of young men smashed windows of two other trains that were in the station.

A crowd of about 5,000 people gathered near the station and chased away the district officials who tried to remove the bodies from the tracks. The crowds blocked the railway tracks, and the few policemen at the site fled, state officials said.

In a statement from his office, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm in the area so that relief and rescue operations could be carried out.

More than 18.5 million passengers travel on India's railway every day.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press