NEW DELHI, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - The death toll from Wednesday morning's train collision in north India has risen to 21, the Times of India reported.
The Goa Samparkranti Express crashed into the stationary Mewar Express at 4:50 a.m. local time near Mathura in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The paper quoted police spokesman Rajesh Dikshit as saying rescuers recovered 19 bodies during a seven-hour operation. Another 19 people were admitted to hospital, of whom two have died, he said.
The paper said that according to a preliminary probe, the driver of the Goa Express ignored track signals.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed condolences to families of the victims, and promised compensation.
The train collision is the forth to occur in India this year. On October 7, one person died and 15 were injured when two trains crashed in east India's Bihar state. In late April, six were killed in a similar accident in India's south, when unidentified men seized an electric train and lost control. In February, two carriages of a train were derailed in the country's northwest.
