Kanpur: In one of the worst rail disasters in the country, at least 145 persons were killed and over 150 injured before dawn on Sunday when 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express derailed near Kanpur.
The toll was confirmed by the Kanpur District Magistrate Office. So far, 58 victims have been identified.
The tragedy occurred when the coaches of the Patna-bound train ran off the rails shortly after 3 a.m. near Pukhrayan station, about 60 km from Kanpur city in Uttar Pradesh, railway and police officials said. Panic set in when the coaches derailed in darkness, throwing scores of sleeping passengers over one another. Many took a while to realise that a tragedy had hit the train.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha and a host of top railways officials visited the site and supervised rescue and relief operations.
Prabhu ordered an inquiry and vowed to take "strictest possible action" against the guilty.
While the cause of the derailment is yet to be ascertained, the accident could have been caused due to rail fracture, reportedly.
Passengers who survived related that there was screaming and shouting as many of the injured were in agony.
The worst hit were the sleeper coaches S1, S2, S3 and S4.
SURVIVORS:
A passenger who survived said that the train stopped a couple of moments after 3 a.m. for unexplained reasons.
"It then suddenly picked up speed," the man said. "And then I got an eerie feeling that the train was rolling down a valley," he said. "By the time I leant what had happened, some 20-25 people in my coach had been killed. A six-year-old girl was literally cut into two pieces," said the terrified man.
Swayambi Mishra, in her early 20s, said she was in S1 coach and did not know what had happened to her father.
A passenger in his 60s added: "God saved me. But most of the people who were with me in the coach seem to have disappeared. I can't find them."
Ruby Gupta, who was going from Indore to Mhow to attend a wedding, could not find her father after the accident. "Some people are telling me to look for him in the hospital. I need my father back."
Said another dazed survivor: "I was awake when the train derailed. There was a loud noise and then pandemonium broke out. I thought I was dreaming. My wife and children are fortunately safe...."
Relief officials described gory scenes, with many passengers crushed by tonnes of steel as several coaches rolled over. Gas cutters were used to rip through the coaches to take out the bodies and the wounded.
Hundreds of bags and suitcases belonging to the passengers were strewn all along the rail track.
According to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) spokesperson Krishna Kumar : Most bodies were beyond recognition as they were badly crushed.
An Uttar Pradesh Police constable rescued five people from S1 coach. "I felt bad... I had to walk over some bodies but I had no choice as I had to save those who were alive."
COMPENSATION:
President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in mourning the dead. Modi announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of each of those killed and Rs 50,000 for each of the seriously injured.
The governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar also announced financial compensation.
CONTROVERSY:
Meanwhile, a row erupted when Sinha visited a hospital in Kanpur and gave an injured woman Rs 5,000 in demonetised notes of Rs 500.
At the accident site, the railways used heavy machinery to separate the tangled coaches. NDRF personnel used hammers to smash the windowpanes to enter the air-conditioned coaches as most doors were locked from inside.
A railway official in Indore said the train, which left there on Saturday and would have reached Patna on Sunday evening, was carrying 1,266 passengers, including 308 in air-conditioned coaches.
The accident led to cancellation and diversion of several trains.
Later, a special train left from the accident site for Patna with the passengers who survived the disaster and could travel.
In the hospitals, the wounded remained frightened by what had happened. Some families got separated as relief officials, unknowingly, rushed a few from a family to one hospital and others to another.