Global Courant
’10 – 15 people fell on me … when I came out, I saw limbs spread on the ground,’ said one survivor.
Carriages from three trains lay on top of each other in a giant twisted wreckage.
Several carriages were toppled on their sides, some thrown into the air by the force of the crash, and crushed by the force of the fall to the ground, according to evidence presented to Britain’s The Guardian.
Dozens of bodies covered in sheets are lined up next to the wreckage, waiting for ambulances, cars or tractors, to take them to hospitals, or makeshift morgue-like schools.
These are the aftermath of India’s worst rail collision in more than two decades, where the Coromandel Express passenger train, from Kolkata to Bengal, collided with a freight train in eastern Odisha region on Friday. After the collision, the freight train derailed and another passenger train traveling in the opposite direction.
This afternoon the search operations ended with a death toll of 288 dead and 803 injured, as more than 3,000 passengers were found on the two trains involved.
Rescue dogs and metal cutters were used to reach those trapped in the crashed wagons.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the scene today and met with survivors in the hospital, vowing that “those responsible will be severely punished”.
Relatives of those on board had launched their own searches for their loved ones, including 53-year-old Rabindra Shau, who was looking for his son Govinda, who was traveling on the Coromandel Express.
“Help me find my son. Help me at least find the body,” cried the man next to the bodies in the twisted wagons.
Sheikh Zakir Hussain, 35, said he was trying to get news of his brother Abdul Sheikh, nephew Mehraj Sheikh, 22, and three neighbors who had taken the ill-fated train to Shalimar to work in Chennai.
“Since I heard about the accident, I called my brother and nephew but I couldn’t contact them. I came early in the morning and now I’m going from one hospital to another but I can’t find them”.
“I went to the scene and checked the dead bodies there. I saw the faces of more than 100 dead people, I did not find my brother, nephews or neighbors”.
Toton Sekh came on Saturday morning to look for his 24-year-old nephew Abu Taher Shekh, 24, from Basanti who was returning from Chennai. He says the scene of the event looked like a scene from hell, as “the bodies of the dead were being kept in a school”.
Officials could not find his grandson at any of the hospitals.
“They told me that there are still bodies trapped in the rubble and that it will take some time to get everyone out. I’m still looking for it. We pray that he is alive somewhere.”
10 of the 23 carriages of the Coromandel Express train were badly damaged in the unusual tragedy, while two carriages of the other Hoërah Superfast Express passenger train overturned.
Among the survivors, Sayantani Ghosh, who was on the train with her 11-year-old daughter, says they are lucky to be alive. The girl described how on impact they were thrown out of their seats before hearing a deafening crash as the next carriage hit theirs.
“We could hear people in the other carriages screaming for help and crying loudly. The scenes of horror that we saw last night appear again in front of my eyes”, says the little one.
Local residents say they heard the screeching of brakes and then the crash, before rushing to the scene to render aid.
Nearby hospitals and health centers are filled with wounded and dead bodies as doctors barely cope with the scale of the disaster.
A doctor at the SCB health center in Cuttak said, “Some have lost limbs and others have serious injuries. About 20 injured people who were brought to me died before we could intervene./The Guardian/
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