Two Britons killed after train derails in northern India

Two British women were killed and nine other passengers injured on Saturday when a train carrying tourists to the hill town of Shimla in northern India derailed, police said. The two passengers who died were both women aged in their sixties, according to police. The train, a special chartered service carrying a group of 37 British holidaymakers and a few Indian crew members, derailed at around 1:00 pm local time. The cause of the derailment was not immediately clear, but the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said three carriages may have left the track because the train was travelling too fast. The tiny Kalka-Shimla railway, which opened in 1903, is a tourist highlight of India's Himachal Pradesh state, attracting thousands of visitors from both India and abroad. India's railway network, one of the world's largest, is still the main form of long-distance travel in the vast country.