Bengal train accident: Teams faced desperate scramble to rescue trapped victims
While village residents were the first responders, the site of the accident was soon besieged by personnel from different agencies
Early on a rainy morning in north Bengal’s Rangapani, Mohammad Hamid was walking home after offering namaz at the local mosque, excited by the prospect of Eid with his family. But at 8:55 am, just as he was about to enter home, Hamid heard an almighty crash—the sound of a goods train careening into the rear end of the Kanchanjunga Express, leaving nine people dead and 41 injured. Hamid, and several other villagers from Rangapani, ran to help.
“The accident happened not far from my home. I froze for a few seconds and then realised the passengers needed help. Some of my neighbours I dashed to help. When we got close to the site, all we could hear were people crying for help from inside a mangled coach of the express train,” Hamid said.
In the minutes that followed, Hamid and other villagers from Rangapani cautiously clambered in and around the debris, pulling out those they could. “We rescued at least eight passengers of whom some appeared to have serious injuries. We also brought out the driver and his assistant from the mangled cabin of the goods train, as well as the guard of the passenger train. Two of them have died. The police arrived half an hour later, after which many agencies came, including railway protection force personnel,” Hamid said.
Mohammad Raju, another resident of Rangapani, said he was watching from the village as the goods train collided with the Kanchanjunga Express. “The passenger train was running at a slow speed but the goods train was moving faster. Four coaches jumped off the track after the accident. We rescued 14 injured passengers, and even I suffered an injury in my right arm while I was trying to pry open the door of a coach,” Raju said.
While village residents were the first responders, the site of the accident was soon besieged by personnel from different agencies — the state police, district administration, SDRF and the NDRF. Senior NDRF officials said that they reached the site in half an hour, and 90 rescuers from three different teams were deployed at the site.
Gurminder Singh, commandant of the NDRF’s second battalion said, “Within half an hour, rescuers were at the spot because the nearest NDRF camp is in Matigara, which is very close to New Jalpaiguri. Our rescuers found three bodies and rescued five injured who were trapped in the bogies. As of 7 pm on Monday, all passengers have been shifted to hospital or released after first aid.”
A second NDRF official who was at the spot said that though the personnel had plasma and gasoline cutters, they were forced to use basic tools to first cut through the metal.
