Safety, security of passengers should be Govt.'s utmost priority: Congress

The Congress Party on Saturday dubbed the train derailment in Karnataka as extremely unfortunate incident and said that the safety and security of passengers should be the government's utmost priority.

"It is an unfortunate incident and there have been incidents like this taking place in the railways. The safety and security of passengers should be the government's and Railway Ministry's utmost priority," Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed told ANI here.

"I hope the Railway Minister and the Modi Government will give special attention to this and ensure passengers safety so that this kind of incident does not occur in the future," he added.

Ahmed further asked the government to provide financial aid to the family members of the deceased and those injured. He also demanded an impartial probe into the accident.

At least two passengers died and eight others injured after nine coaches of the Duranto Express going from Secunderabad to Mumbai derailed in Karnataka early this morning.

The accident took place around 2 am at Martur village station in Gulbarga district, near the Maharashtra-Karnataka border.