'Hero' family rushes to aid Pakistan train crash victims.

DAHARKI: As an express train hurtled through farmland in Pakistan and smashed into the carriages of another service that had derailed minutes earlier, a family of nearby villagers was jolted awake.

"The blast of the collision was so loud that we woke up in panic," said Ali Nawaz, describing the start of a frantic bid to help passengers from the wreckage of the double disaster. "When we came out of the house we saw the train had halted, as we got closer to the scene we heard people calling for help." At least 63 people were killed, according to officials, with dozens more wounded. With patchy mobile phone reception and a poor road network, it would be hours before emergency services could reach the site, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the nearest city of Daharki, deep in southern Sindh province. Nawaz's family of around a dozen people lives just 500 metres (550 yards) from the tracks. The men raced to identify the most seriously wounded passengers to take to hospital by car while those who appeared more stable were loaded onto tractor trailers. The first passenger, a mother that Nawaz's cousin drove to the hospital, died in the back seat. Back at the farmhouse, the women raced to fill water containers for the injured in the sweltering summer night.

"They made a chain -- the women would carry water to the midway point from where the men would carry it to the passengers," 63-year-old Nawaz told AFP, cows and calves roaming the courtyard of his single-story brick home. 'We did the best we could' Hundreds of disorientated...