IANS/Hyderabad/Chennai
In one of India’s most horrific train tragedies, 32 people were killed when a second class coach of the Chennai-bound Tamil Nadu Express caught fire early yesterday in Andhra Pradesh.
Firefighters try to douse the flames of the New Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express train at Nellore yesterday
A mobile camera footage showed leaping flames engulfing the S-11 coach even as the train continued to run, triggering panic among the passengers, with many desperately trying to escape.
Some among the 70-80 in the coach succeeded in escaping the blaze by jumping out of the train.
Those trapped at the other end of the coach where the doors did not open perished in the most gruesome manner.
A Railway Board official in New Delhi late in the evening put the number of dead at 32 and the injured at 25, revising earlier statistics that said 35 people were killed.
The tragedy took place near Nellore, about 450km from Hyderabad.
“I was lucky to escape but many could not as the doors were jammed and the smoke spread very fast,” said Sudhir, a shaken survivor.
Passengers, who had no reservation and were sitting or standing near the doors were lucky while others sleeping on berths, especially the upper and middle ones, had no time even to rush towards the doors.
Rescue workers found bodies lying on berths.
A body was seen in a sitting posture, indicating the man could not even attempt an escape.
Pieces of human flesh were seen among the mangled remains of the coach.
Passenger D Ram Sudhakar had a very narrow escape. “It was due to God’s grace I am alive,” the manager at the United India Insurance Co’s Vishakapatnam branch said.
Recounting the nightmare Sudhakar said he boarded the train at Vijayawada at 1am yesterday, some six hours before it was to reach its destination Chennai. He went to sleep in berth 7 of the S-11 coach. Around 4am he said he heard fellow passengers shouting and screaming. Waking up he saw a blazing fire at the other end of the bogie.
Sudhakar quickly roused other sleeping passengers, pulled the alarm chain to stop the train – as the driver was unaware of the fire - and tried to open the doors.
“The two doors on the other side were inaccessible due to the blaze. Initially people were not able to open even one door. I jumped over a man standing near the door and opened it,” Sudhakar said.
He then started pushing people out.
But it was too late for some who suffocated to death. Sudhakar claimed he saved two elderly people who had come with a young girl.
“They did not want to leave as the girl was not to be found. I forced them to get off the coach,” he said.
It was a railway employee near the Nellore railway station who finally alerted the authorities about the burning train.
Police, fire brigade and railway staff quickly rushed to the site and controlled the fire after detaching the affected coach.
Initially, there was confusion about the number of dead as some bodies were charred beyond recognition and some reduced to ashes. Only five bodies could be identified till yesterday evening as rescuers had a tough time gathering the charred remains.
The railways announced Rs500,000 compensation each to the families of the dead and Rs100000 for the critically injured.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and DMK president M. Karunanidhi mourned the loss of lives.
Some major train accidents since 2000
l December 3, 2000: Forty-six killed and over 130 injured when the Howrah-Amritsar Mail rams into a derailed goods train between Sarai Banjara and Sadhugarh in Punjab.
l June 22, 2001: Forty people killed when the Mangalore-Chennai Mail tumbles into the Kadalundi river near Kozhikode in Kerala.
l May 12, 2002: Twelve killed when the New Delhi-Patna Shramjeevi Express derails while passing over a bridge in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh.
l June 4, 2002: Thirty-four killed when the Kasgunj Express crashes into a bus at a rail crossing.
l Sep 10, 2002: 120 people killed when the Kolkata-New Delhi Rajdhani Express derails over a bridge in Bihar.
l Jan 3, 2003: Eighteen killed as three coaches of an express train derail in south-central Maharashtra.
l May 15, 2003: A burst stove causes a devastating fire that sweeps through a speeding passenger train in Punjab, killing 40 people and injuring more than 50.
l June 22, 2003: In the first major accident on the Konkan Railway, 53 people, including three children, are killed and 25 injured when the engine and three coaches of the Karwar-Mumbai Central Holiday Special train derail after crossing Vaibhavwadi station in Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra.
l July 2, 2003: At least 22 passengers and motorists killed in a bizarre but ghastly accident in Andhra Pradesh, when the engine and two coaches of a train fall off a bridge crushing vehicles passing underneath.
l June 16, 2004: Mumbai-bound Matsyagandha Express goes off the tracks while crossing a bridge in Maharashtra’s Raigarh district, nearly 150 km from Mumbai, killing 20 people and injuring over 60.
l May 28, 2010: The 13-coach Gyaneshwari Express train derails after track-sabotage and its derailed coaches are hit by an oncoming goods train. 148 people die in the accident.
l July 19, 2010: The speeding Sealdah-bound Uttarbanga Express rams into the Vananchal Express at Sainthia station in West Bengal’s Birbhum district killing at least 60 people.
l May 22, 2011: At least 16 people killed when the vehicle in which they were travelling is hit by a train at an unmanned railway crossing in Bihar’s Madhubani district.
l July 7, 2011: At least 31 people killed and 17 injured when a train hits a bus carrying 80 passengers at an unmanned crossing.
l November 22, 2011: Seven people burnt to death when the Howrah-Dehradun express train catches fire in Giridih in Jharkhand.
l January 11, 2012: Five people killed in a collision between the Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail and a stationary goods train.
lMay 22, 2012: At least 25 people killed when the Banglore-bound Hampi Express collides with a stationary goods train in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district.
l May 31, 2012: At least seven people killed after the Howrah-Dehradun Doon Express derails near Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh.