India train crash victims 'screaming for help' as 288 die after carriages derail
A mother travelling on a train which collided with two others - leaving at least 288 victims dead - told how she and her young daughter heard "people screaming for help and crying loudly".
Sayantani Ghosh was on the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, which was involved in a collision with another passenger train and a goods service at around 7.20pm local time on Friday in the Odisha state of India.
At least 288 people have died - and hundreds more are seriously hurt - following the smash.
"The impact was so massive that two toilets of our coach were completely flattened," Sayantani, who was travelling with her 11-year-old daughter, said today.
A rescuer works at the site of the train crash today (Alamy Live News.)"From the adjacent coaches, we heard people screaming for help and crying loudly. Horrifying scenes from last evening keep flashing before my eyes.
Missing radioactive capsule found after huge search - and it's the size of a pea
"I cannot get it off my mind. I am still in a trauma."
One survivor said he had been asleep but was awoken as his carriage derailed.
"Some 10 to 15 people fell over me," he told an Indian news channel.
"I injured my hand and neck. When I got out of the train, I saw limbs scattered all around, a leg here, a hand there. Someone’s face was disfigured."
People gather at the site of the accident, which has killed at least 280 people (Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)About 10 of the 23 coaches which made up the Coromandel Express were severely damaged, and two carriages of the Howrah Superfast Express train had overturned.
Relatives of those on board the trains rushed to the site and began frantically looking through the bodies trying to find their loved ones.
Rabindra Shau, 53, was looking for his son Govinda, who had boarded the Coromandel Express in Shalimar.
The panicked father said: "Please help me find my son. At least help me with his dead body."
Three trains - including two passenger services - collided on Friday evening (Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)Sheikh Zakir Hussain, 35, from West Bengal, was trying to get news of his older brother Abdul Sheikh, his nephew, Mehraj Sheikh, 22, and three of his neighbours, who had all boarded a train near Shalimar and were heading to Chennai for work.
He said: "I even went to the spot and saw heaps of bodies lying there.
Boy, 3, dies after being left in sweltering car in 34C heat 'throughout the day'
"I saw the faces of more than 100 dead people but could not find my brother, nephew or my neighbours."
Hospitals and health centres have been overrun with the dead and injured, and medical personnel have struggled to keep up with the scale of the disaster.
The Guardian reports one hospital is "flooded with the injured".
A screengrab taken from a news bulletin shows the sheer scale of devastation (AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)A doctor at SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttak said: "Some have lost their limbs and many have serious injuries across their bodies,. Around 20 injured people who were brought to me passed away while we were trying to treat them.
"The hospital is flooded with the injured. They are lying on the floor. We are rushing from one patient to another. I just managed to attend to the wounds of a small girl child, she is doing well. But we have no idea about her parents."
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, visited the accident site today and met the injured in hospitals, vowing that "those responsible will be severely punished".
The railway minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, had also surveyed the wreckage earlier in the day and promised a high-level investigation, including into whether a signalling failure had caused the crash.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
