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People crowd around the derailed coaches of the Golconda Express after the engine and two adjoining coaches fell off a bridge. Image Credit: Gulf News Archives

At least 18 people died when the engine and two carriages of the Secunderabad-bound express train plunged off a bridge in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, crushing people on a bustling street below. Twenty-one others were injured when the Golconda Express, packed with commuters, jumped the rails in the city of Warangal. Two more carriages dangled dangerously from the bridge, even as the railway minister put the blame on the train driver. The driver of the train said he noticed a brake failure after the train left the Nekkonda railway station and informed his superiors and the train diverted on the loop line away from the main cord electrified line for possible damage control. The police said 12 people, among them two women and a child, died in the two carriages that fell from the bridge, while six others were crushed to death when the engine fell on them.

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