Bogie No S-11 of the New Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu Express turned into a burning inferno on wheels today as screaming passengers jolted from their sleep ran for the only clear exit door in the dark — some stepping on dead bodies — before the train came to a screeching halt.
With just around three hours left for the train, running at 110 km per hour through this town in Andhra Pradesh, to reach its final destination, at least 32 passengers were not lucky and got in the ghastly fire that swept through the sleeper coach snuffing out their lives in a few seconds.
The bodies of the victims were charred beyond recognition and the intensity of the blaze could be gauged from TV footage which showed huge balls of flame leaping out of the bogie — which has reserved accommodation for 72 passengers.
Chitra, a passenger from Delhi who was in S-11, said she heard lound screams for help and that she jumped out even before the train could come to a complete halt.
“It was smoke all around and I jumped out of the train,” she said, recounting the early morning horror, as all hell broke loose. Several passengers were asleep when the fire was noticed at 4.15 am by the Nellore Station Manager.
A passenger identified as Ishan Shah said he did not hear any blast in the ill-fated bogie.
“I did not hear any sound,” said Shah, who was in the adjacent coach. Shah said he heard the shouts of anguished passengers to pull the chain and bring the train to a halt.
The Railway Minister, Mr Mukul Roy, said some injured passengers and a gateman had heard a sound when the S-11 coach caught fire, but refused to say at this stage whether he suspected sabotage.
The Nellore District Collector, Mr B. Sridhar said, “There was a short circuit near the toilet and the train was moving at a speed of 110 km per hour.” The hapless passengers had to rush to the other end of the bogie to exit since the fire had engulfed one end of the coach.
Sahaj Ahmed, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, who had boarded the train at Bhopal, said he ran for safety as soon as he realised that it was a matter of life and death.
“It was smoke and panic all around and I ran for my life to the exit door in pitch dark,” he said and feared that he may have stepped on some dead bodies.
As rescue workers struggled with the fierce temperatures inside the ravaged bogie, blackened and twisted bodies of victims were lifted out of the gutted carriage and laid in rows along the railway line. Family members of the victims wailed and screamed, while other dazed survivors sat around numbed with their belongings.
“I woke up when people rushed into our compartment, I was in S-10 which was next to the S-11 coach that caught fire,” said another passenger Shantanu.
The more fortunate passengers in the adjacent compartments said with rains lashing at various places during their near three-day journey, they had shut most of the windows and doors.
“Therefore, we could not hear the screams of those in coach S-11 and it dawned on us quite late that a mishap had occurred, resulting in some delay in reaching out to them,” Devanathan, travelling with his family in a nearby coach, said.
Railway personnel were making preliminary identification based on the reservation records of the affected bogie.