LAHORE, Aug 30: Three people were killed and 19 others injured when the Karachi-bound Khyber Mail ran into a stationary passenger train, some two kilometres from the Badami Bagh railway station, on Tuesday morning.

Assistant driver Muhammad Javed and a woman passenger died on the spot while a boy died while being taken to a hospital. Khyber Mail driver Jain Khan was among the 12 injured who were shifted to the Mayo Hospital while six others were taken to the Nawaz Sharif hospital.

Rail traffic was partially restored on the track by noon.

Railway authorities said an inquiry had been ordered into the accident.

The Fast Passenger (206-Down) stopped near the Badami Bagh flyover crossing after an accident that had killed a child on Tuesday when the Khyber Mail (2-Down) ran into it, turning upside down the last coach of the passenger train.

Known as Babu train, the Fast Passenger (205-Up/206-Down) operates between Lahore and Wazirabad through Shahdara and Gujranwala. Usually, Khyber Mail passes through the track two hours before Babu train, but on Tuesday the Khyber Mail was three hours late.

Soon after the accident, residents of adjoining Siddiqpura and Haneef Park reached the spot and started rescue work.

Within 10 minutes they were joined by Rescue 1122, followed by Edhi volunteers and Civil Defence officials. The condition of three unidentified youths was stated to be serious at hospitals while identity of a dead woman could not be established till late in the evening.

The injured admitted to the Mayo Hospital included train driver Jain Khan, M Ramazan, Ghulam Fatima, Sheraz, Saleem, Shahbaz, Majid, Surraya Bibi, Sain Muhammad, Asghari Begum and Javed. The passengers under treatment at Nawaz Sharif Hospital included Mushtaq, Allah Rakha, M Yaqoob and Riaz.

Witnesses said a teenaged boy, said to be mentally-retarded, was sitting on the track near Haneef Park, adding that the driver blew horns but he didn’t move and the train ran him over and came to a halt.