"Deaths due to accidents pain us all. Condolences to families who lost loved ones. Safety must always be No.1 priority of Indian Railways," she said in a tweet.
Fourteen coaches of high-speed Utkal Express jumped the rails, with one of them crashing into a house adjacent to the track near Khatauli this evening, claiming at least 23 lives and leaving a large number of passengers injured.
Railway ministry officials in Delhi, however, put the number of dead at 12. The train was coming from Puri in Odisha and going to Haridwar in Uttarakhand, normally a journey of about 36 hours.
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