Heaps of twisted bogies, crying passengers at West Bengal train derailment site

Mangled heaps of bogies lying off the tracks, passengers in bandages and plasters and a row of hearse vans lined up - the scene at the site of the derailment of the Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express here virtually resembled a war zone.

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, about 135 km from Howrah where the derailment took place killing 68 passengers.

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. 

Rescue workers were trying to enter the overturned bogies using gas-cutters and those who managed to come out on their own squatted along the tracks nursing their wounds.

CRPF and army personnel assisted by a sniffer dog and donned in masks and helmets used gas cutters to carry out the rescue operations.

The correspondent saw a six year-old girl being extricated from S4 compartment in an unconscious state along with another of about the same age, but dead. 

The unconscious child was rushed to a waiting helicopter to be ferried to the Railway hospital at Kharagpur and the sadar hospital at Midnapore for treatment.

Heart breaking scenes were witnessed at the site. 

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

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. The tragedy happened at around 1:30 am.

Five coaches, S-4 to S-8, were the most badly hit with coach-9 having telescoped into the one ahead of it. Four wagons of the goods train also derailed. 

"It was pitch dark and I don't remember what happened thereafter. When I regained my sense, I somehow managed to scramble out of the coach through the emergency window," a passenger Ajay Gupta, who was on board told PTI.

Jagabandhu Sardar, in his late forties, said he was in S-6, one of the worst affected bogies, with his wife and three daughters. "All of us have escaped death though some of us have suffered injuries".

Food was being distributed among the passengers, who waited in the open in the hot summer sun. A water tanker too was kept at the site to provide drinking water.

National Disaster Rescue Force personnel from Kolkata were rushed in to help in rescue operations, while the disaster rescue team of the Kolkata Police were expected to reach the spot soon.

A 140-member National Disaster Management team would come from Delhi to join the rescue operations, Banerjee said. 

The engine of the train was not damaged but the pantry car behind it derailed followed by 12 others behind it. 

The goods train engine and several rakes after it were seen to have telescoped between S6 and S7 coaches making them
among the five worst hit ones. Under the impact of the
collision coaches S3, S4 and S5 capsized, while S1, S2 and S8
were partially damaged.

The assistant drivers of both the trains were killed in the incident, Railway sources here said. 

Salvaging work was already complete in S3 and is on in S4, railway source said.

Overhead electric wires were snapped to avoid any accident as CRPF, along with the army, paramilitary force, state police, GRP and RPF grimly went on with the rescue operations, which were supervised personally by railway minister Mamata Banerjee.

Medical teams of various organisations lent a helping hand and some of the injured passengers were administered first-aid at the spot, while the seriously injured were being ferried to hospitals in a helicopter by the IAF, which it had requisitioned from  Kalaikunda.

Another helicopter belonging to the BSF stood by as did several ambulances, while a crane stood by to haul the capsized bogies.