Patna: Scattered bodies, torched train carriages, tracks splattered with blood and wailing relatives marked the scene of the train tragedy in Bihar.
Several hours after the accident, flames and dark smoke could be seen billowing out of the train coaches, as protesters blocked firefighters from Dhamara Ghat, officials said.
As the train stopped a few hundred metres beyond the spot where it hit the pilgrims, angry mobs pulled out the train driver and beat him.
The mob then got all the passengers out of the train and set some coaches on fire. Groups of young men also smashed the window panes of two other trains that were in the station.
A crowd of around 5,000 people had gathered near Dhamara Ghat station and chased away the district officials who tried to remove the bodies from the tracks. The crowds had blocked the railway tracks and the few policemen posted at the station had fled, state officials said.
Kumar Ashutosh, a passenger on the train, said that within a few seconds of hitting people on the track, the driver slammed the emergency brakes and the train ground to a halt.
“Soon, groups of people began running toward the engine. They asked us to get down from the train. Some of them pulled out the driver and his assistant and began beating them,” said Ashutosh, who walked nine kilometres from the accident site to the nearby Saharsa station.
District magistrate Syed Pervez Alam said the dismembered bodies of passengers who had been killed were lying on the track. The angry mob has chased away policemen and officials who tried to reach the station.
“I had woken up and was sitting near the window, when all this happened. There were crowds of people on the platform and some on the track. It all happened so fast,” Ashutosh said. He said that although the train had been given clearance to pass through Dhamara Ghat without stopping, the driver was partly to blame.
“The driver did not slow down when the train approached the station. He maintained the high speed at which the train was moving, so it was difficult for him to stop when he realised that there were people on the track,” said Ashutosh, who was travelling in the first coach next to the engine.
