50-Coach Runaway Train Rolls 70 km Without Driver; Railway Probe Underway

New Delhi: Indian Railways said Monday it had ordered an investigation after a runaway freight train loaded with gravel travelled 70 km without a driver.

Around 50 carriages set off solo, careering from Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab, before being brought to a halt by wooden blocks placed on the tracks on Sunday.

“We have ordered an inquiry,” Northern Railways spokesman Deepak Kumar told AFP, adding that no one was hurt in the incident.

The train, running at 100 kmph, was captured in a video that went viral on social media.

The incident happened after the train stopped at a railway station in Jammu for a crew change, local media reports said.

But it began moving down a slope after the driver and his assistant got off.

All road crossings on the route were closed to prevent accidents.

The incident is the latest to hit India’s creaking rail network, which carries millions of passengers each day. The country has invested huge sums of money to upgrade the network with modern stations and electronic signalling systems.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)