Daily News

Jhargram: The derailment of Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express by suspected Maoists at about 0130 hrs IST on Friday left at least 68 passengers dead and over 200 injured. The Mumbai-bound train derailed when it was running between Khemasoli and Sardiya stations, about 150 km from Kolkata.

Five of the 13 derailed coaches fell on an adjacent track and were hit by a goods train coming from the opposite direction, Additional Superintendent of Police, Jhargram, Mukesh Kumar said. The accident site is littered with the mangled heaps of bogies, passengers in bandages and plasters and a row of hearse vans lined up.

Belongings of passengers including suitcases, bags and shoes were strewn around as ladders and cranes were being deployed to take out the survivors and clear the tracks at Guptamoni.

Many passengers were seen in bandages or plasters, sitting huddled with whatever was left of their belongings, waiting to be evacuated, while some others were seen weeping inconsolably as bodies were brought out of the crushed bogies.

A lady trapped waist down was pulled out after a 12-hour ordeal. She was given a saline drip while still trapped inside the bogie with the saline pouch hanging from the overhead rod.

Passengers recounted the horror of the derailment and thanked God for bringing them out of the bogies alive.

"We were 10 people in the compartment. Four of us have escaped while six are still stuck inside. The incident took place when we were sleeping. We heard a loud blast. We ran from our seat but were unable to get out. I was hanging onto a rod," said a passenger.

"We saw the train tumble over. I asked them (rescuers) to save my kids. Then he pulled us out of the window," said another passenger.

"My brother is still trapped inside. We were in S-4. We fell when the train derailed. Many people died," added another.

Debashsis Naskar, a goldsmith from North 24 Parganas working in Mumbai wept uncontrollably as he had lost his father, elder brother, sister-in-law, younger brother and niece in the tragedy.

Mamoni Begum, a young woman also from North 24 Parganas, frantically searched for her six year-old daughter with whom she was travelling to Mumbai to meet her husband. Passengers recounted the harrowing experience saying they were thrown off their seats as the goods train coming from the other direction rammed into the coaches which had overturned on the down line.

In Mumbai relatives of passengers travelling in the ill-fated train were frantically trying to get in touch with their loved ones. Read more....