Two killed, 3 hurt as train rams covered van

At least two persons were killed and three others injured on Tuesday night when a Khulna-bound train, Chitra Express, collided with a covered van in Gazipur.

The collision took place around 9:30pm as the covered van was crossing the Dhaka-Khulna rail tracks through an unprotected rail crossing on Salna-Jolarpar road in Mollapara area of the city, Sub-inspector SM Rakibul Alam at Joydevpur Railway junction police outpost said quoting train passengers and locals.

The van was on way to Dhaka with garment goods shipped out from TM Fashion in Mollapara area, he added.

One of the dead was identified as van passenger Selim, 27, from Phulpur in Mymensingh while the identity of the other, passenger of the train and aged about 26 years, could not be known.

All the three injured were inside the van. Among them, critically injured van driver Saiful Islam, 25, and an unidentified injured person were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The third injured, Arman, 26, a worker of the garment factory, was admitted to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital in Gazipur.

The mangled covered van was pushed nearly fifty feet off the rail tracks, said locals. 

Rail communications between Dhaka and Rajshahi remained suspended until the damaged locomotive was removed from the tracks, about half a kilometre away from the accident site, around 12:30 am early yesterday.