9 dead in India from gas stove fire on train

ANKARA

Nine people were killed and eight injured in a fire that broke out from a gas stove inside a stationary railway compartment in southern India, officials said Saturday.

Rescue operations have ended and the injured are being provided treatment, S. Sangeetha, a senior civil admin official in the Tamil Nadu state, told Anadolu over the phone.

She said that in the morning when passengers tried to light a gas stove to make coffee, “there was a cylinder blast.”

A Southern India Railways statement said the incident took place at the Madurai Yard in Tamil Nadu. It said an "illegal gas cylinder" led to the fire.

Officials said a fire was reported in a “private coach” early Saturday and firefighters were dispatched to the scene.

A passenger or passengers “illegally smuggled in a gas cylinder and this caused the fire," it said.

While giving the exact number of injured, the death toll was revised downward from an earlier figure of 10.

The railway said passengers are not allowed to carry flammable materials such as gas cylinders.

On social media, Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, said he was “deeply saddened by the tragic incident” and pledged compensation of the equivalent of over $3,600 to families of the victims.