‘My train collided with the other train’: a survivor recounts the horrific moments
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Balasore/New Delhi: A man who is getting care in a hospital in Balasore, the site of Saturday’s train mishap in Odisha, said that the train he was travelling in collided with the goods train.
At least 288 people have died in the most horrific train accident in India’s recent history after three trains made a violent tryst in Balasore, ramming one another and telescoping.
Visuals of the accident involving Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train showed twisted steel, and belongings of the passengers were seen strewn all around.
Rescue workers had difficulty extracting bodies from the wreckage while looking for the injured.
Deepak Das from Assam, one of the those lucky enough to come out alive, narrated to NDTV the horrible moments.
‘My train collided with the goods train and the coaches flipped over. I survived because I was at the window seat. I held on to the window,’ he was quoted as saying.
Another man, hailing from Bihar, said he felt huge jolt and but could not recall much of details of the accident.
He said that his family will come to take him home, adding that ‘ I heard a loud noise when my train collided with the other train’.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the root cause of the accident is identified without giving details of the probe, and further said the target now is to restore train traffic by Wednesday morning .
The ministry will give ₹ 10 lakh for the families of the died, and ₹ 2 lakh for those seriously injured, alongside 2 lakh for the family of the dead and ₹ 50,000 for the injured from the PM's National Relief Fund (PMNRF).