“I am very lucky to be alive,” he said.The force of the collision left little evidence of at least four of the coaches which were completely flattened.At first the noise of the crash led police to believe that it had been caused by a terrorist explosion on one train forcing its derailment into the path of the other oncoming train. Another 125 had been referred to a medical college in Siliguri because they were in a serious condition.Mohammed Rais, one of the injured, was trapped for two hours with blood pouring from his head. Local residents rushed to the scene and began rescue operations long before the emergency services arrived. The dead were covered in white sheets and laid beside the tracks.Doctors and 25 local medical students who had been working flat out since 4am said they feared hundreds more passengers would be found in second- class carriages, which are often crammed with more than 70 people each.At Islampur regional hospital, Dr D K Kundu said he had 225 patients, the vast majority with multiple fractures and head injuries. A signal failure between the towns of Kishanganj and Islampur caused both trains to end up on the same track, probably as they changed lines in Gaisal.Six carriages of one train tore into seven of the other, trapping passengers, and leaving a trail of broken glass, suitcases, shoes and bedrolls. India’s railway minister, Nitish Kumar, and West Bengal’s municipal affairs minister, Ashok Bhattcharya, travelled to the area to oversee the rescue operation, which went into full swing at first light.The Bramahputra Mail bound for New Delhi collided with the Awadh Assam Express heading for Guwahati, Assam, just before 2am as most of the passengers slept.

In June 1981 more than 800 people died when a cyclone blew their train off its tracks and into a river in the northern state of Bihar.Despite earlier suspicions of a terrorist attack, yesterday’s accident was blamed on signal failure, which a senior railway police official said may have been compounded by the negligence of the trains’ crews. Officials said 225 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage in West Bengal, eastern India, but at least 50 more bodies were visible and the death toll was likely to rise.
Many dead and injured were still believed to be trapped in the debris of the 13 carriages and two engines, more than 16 hours after the accident.As the death toll rose throughout the day, it appeared the crash could rival the country’s – and the world’s – worst rail tragedy. AS MANY as 500 people may have been killed and many hundreds more injured when two express trains collided head on at high speed in India yesterday. However it seems clear that ITV’s pounds 250m acquisition of the television rights to Champions’ League football for the next four years swung his decision to move.David Liddiment, ITV’s director of programmes, said: “It was a happy coincidence that we had the four-year contract when he was thinking of a change.”Bob Shennan, the BBC’s head of sport, put a brave face on the news: “There is no question that Des leaving us is disappointing. But I think he would be the first person to say that no presenter is bigger than BBC Sport as a whole.”A sad day for the BBC, page 5. The reasoning behind this move is I needed a change – a breath of fresh air,” he said.The presenter declared that he did not believe BBC sport to be in decline, despite the corporation’s recent loss of high profile events.

Mr Lynam said he did not give the corporation a chance to make a counter-offer because his mind was made up.Corporation insiders said lawyers would be examining the presenter’s contract which was due to run until next year.Mr Lynam said he was looking for a new challenge: “This is quite a monumental day for me. Mr Lynam, 55, who has been with the BBC for 30 years, is thought to have accepted a four-year contract worth pounds 5m to present ITV’s coverage of the European Champions’ League and the FA Cup.
The BBC was only told of Mr Lynam’s move yesterday when he informed the corporation’s deputy director-general, Will Wyatt. DES LYNAM, one of the most familiar faces in British broadcasting, shocked the BBC yesterday by defecting to ITV, to become the channel’s lead football presenter. In the 21st century will Londoners hail Zevco’s yellow cabs, identical to the old black cabs, except that they fill up on water, and leave water vapour and hydrogen in their slipstream? Just one of the options in the Fast Forward>>Rewind>Rewind. Following the success of his verbless version of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell and Joseph Heller’s Something, Fiona Shaw will be reading Preston’s reworking of Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Down And.After Midnight. What is time? Can infinity be measured? An open-ended studio discussion.. Dr Kit Preston believes that the use of verbs signifies imperialist cultural assumptions at odds with writers’ true intentions.

Meanwhile, their neighbour Sir Peter frets about the transfer of his latest Tom Stoppard revival from the National to the Duke of York’s, while loveable senior novelist Beryl prepares for a weekend in the country at Germaine Greer’s farm.The Einstein Book at Bedtime. In our daily serial, Michael reveals that he is facing a problem with an imminent Sunday newspaper profile by Lynn Barber, while his author wife, Margaret, is still depressed by a favourable review in the TLS for her sister Antonia. In this wacky word game, Einstein’s resident team of eggheads – Jonathan Miller, Umberto Eco and Will Self – join in a battle of wit and erudition to see who can speak for longest without anyone else having the remotest idea what they are talking about.The Holroyds. When is it right to go into analysis? How much should one expect to pay for an 50-minute session? John Cleese hosts Radio Einstein’s weekly shrink-tank.Just a Post-Structuralist Minute. The BBC has Floyd; Einstein has Flett! Every week, Keith Flett, the man of a thousand opinions, will be travelling the country revealing how you don’t need particular intelligence or knowledge to rustle up enough strongly held points of view to fill several letters columns in national newspapers.Analysis.

In future programmes in the series, Sir David Hare will discuss the agony of writing for Hollywood, Mr and Mrs Jeremy Corbyn will discuss private education, and Martin Amis will explore whether it is obligatory for a serious novelist to live in America.Far-flung Flett. Every week on Radio Einstein, an agonising everyday choice will be explored by a celebrity guest. To launch the series, Lord Bragg recalls the moment when he was offered the chance of a peerage in an institution whose existence he had always opposed, and the many seconds of heart searching that it caused. Neil Morrissey and Saeed Jaffrey play the ill-matched scribblers.The Choice. Adapted from Paul Theroux’s hilarious account of his long, troubled friendship with VS Naipaul, Radio Einstein’s first sitcom will follow the misadventures of two writers who travel around the world becoming increasingly jealous of one another. Where can I find a gardener? Can one get cut- price help from refugee centres? What is the best way of getting planning permission for a second garage? These and other questions will be answered by Einstein’s panel of experts.Sir Vidia Behaving Badly.