Good Evening, I'm bored ....

had chicken curry and rice

CHENNAI, India - At least 50 people were charred to death, mostly in their sleep, when a deadly fire ripped through a coach of a fast train carrying passengers from Indian capital Delhi to the southern city of Chennai Monday, officials and eyewitnesses said.

The pre-dawn accident occurred in the S-11 coach of the long distance train minutes after the Chennai-bound train left Nellore in south coastal Andhra Pradesh, about 450 km from the main city of Hyderabad.

"More than 35 bodies have been recovered and 25 injured are in hospitals," said B. Rami Reddy, district revenue officer and additional district magistrate at Nellore.

Eyewitnesses said that the death toll was around 50 as more than 80 passengers were travelling in the second class reserved coach with a capacity to seat 72.

Accidents are common on India's immense state-owned rail network - one of the biggest in the world carrying some 20 million people each day in more than 10,000 trains on 64,000 kilometers of track spread across the country.

At least 24 people were killed in May when a passenger train crashed into a goods train in Andhra Pradesh state. Train accidents have killed 1,220 people over the past five years in India, railway officials recently revealed.

Head of Nellore's district administration B. Sridhar said that a railway station worker first noticed the burning coach. An alarm was raised, the train was brought to halt and the coach was detached from the rest of the train to prevent the blaze from spreading to other coaches.

Sridhar said rescue workers found bodies lying on berths. A body was seen in a sitting posture, indicating that the man could not even attempt an escape.

Charred bodies and pieces of human flesh were seen lying among the mangled remains of the coach.

Some bodies were burnt beyond recognition.

Though the cause of the fire was being ascertained, officials suspect an electric short circuit near the toilet may have caused it.

Eyewitnesses said many passengers, who had no reservation, were sitting or standing near the doors.

They were however lucky to jump out of the burning coach. Others sleeping on berths had no time even to rush towards the doors that got jammed as passengers scrambled to the doors.

"I woke up after hearing loud screams. All I could see was black smoke," said Y Sampath, a software engineer who managed to escape the blaze.

Sampath was travelling with his sister, who is missing.

Officials said the coach was completely gutted and rescue teams had to break in using special equipment like gas cutters.

The government has announced Rs.5 lakh ex-gratia to the families of each of those killed and Rs.1 lakh to the critically injured.