Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the site of a deadly train collision in eastern India and a local hospital on Saturday, local media reported.
The accident on late Friday, which involved three trains, has left at least 238 people dead and hundreds more injured, Indian media reported. The AFP news agency said the death toll is now at 288, citing Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of the Odisha state fire department.
Modi has already called a high-level meeting with railway officials on Saturday in the wake of the accident.
India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has dispatched nine teams for search and rescue, and the operation would possibly end by Saturday evening, Narendra Singh Bundela, an official from the NDRF, told ANI news agency.
The accident occurred around 7:20 p.m. local time near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district, about 171 km northeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha.
According to officials, the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, hit the Yashwantpur-Howrah Express, which derailed and toppled onto the adjacent track. A cargo train was also said to be involved in the accident.
