Coaches strewn haphazardly, mangled tracks & more: Aerial videos capture horror of Odisha train crash

At least 238 people were killed and around 900 were injured in a horrific three-train collision in Odisha's Balasore, the country's deadliest rail accident in more than 20 years. The shocking crash involved the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train.

One train crashed with another so violently during the collision that carriages were launched into the air and twisted before crashing off the tracks. Another carriage's passenger portion had been crushed after being completely thrown onto its roof.

Also read: Odisha train crash one of the deadliest Railway accidents in India

Aerial visuals of the crash site at Balasore captured the horror of the incident, the fourth deadliest in India according to available records. The train crash happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 pm on Friday, prompting the Railway Ministry to order a probe.

WATCH Drone footage of Odisha train crash that have gone viral on Twitter:

Drone footage of the accident site looked like as if a powerful force had thrown the train coaches on top of each other, in a haphazard but "wrathful" manner. 

The medical staff carrying stretchers and the rescue workers using gas cutters appeared to be an army of busy soldier ants walking purposefully about.

Electric saws and gas cutters buzzing to clear the rubble and free trapped passengers were punctuated by the cry of ambulance sirens and the whistles of police officers ordering onlookers to stay away from the scene.

A horrifying scene was formed closer to the ground by bodies that were entangled with mangled steel and bodies that were covered in blood.

As mangled coaches lay scattered everywhere, some of which had mounted on others, and others of which had turned turtle from the collision, the nearby railway tracks were nearly completely wrecked.

Also read: Coromandel Express derailment shocks the nation; distressing visuals narrate the horror

"Some of the scenes at the site were too gory to describe," said a passenger to PTI.

Locals claimed they heard a series of loud noises, raced to the scene, and discovered the derailed coaches to be little more than "a mangled heap of steel."

The Balasore District Hospital resembled a battlefield with injured people laying on stretchers in the hallway and rooms jam-packed with extra beds raised.

A lot of the patients, many of whom were from states other than Odisha and had communication issues, were being helped by frazzled medical staff. 526 victims of railway accidents have been admitted to this one hospital in all.

According to officials, police officers and citizens have been donating blood all night long at this hospital and many others. In the middle of the night, more than 2,000 people came at the Balasore Medical College and Hospital to assist the injured. Many of them also gave blood, according to officials.

Many of the bodies in the mortuary at the hospital were still unidentified because relatives haven't arrived in the town and numerous train services have been cancelled or delayed as a result of the disaster on a major railway trunk line.

Following the fatal triple train tragedy, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday proclaimed a day of national mourning.