Ramrang Pasi could not bear to look at the body of his uncle Lachchiram Pasi, such was the extent of the mutilation. Lachchiram’s family wants to take his mortal remains to his native Nepal but the severed portions of his hands and legs are yet to be traced, 24 hours after the train tragedy in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon.

Shaukat Ali, another migrant worker from Nepal who was travelling with Lachchiram, said he and a co-passenger survived by a whisker as they lay in a sliver of space between the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express and the Bengaluru-Delhi Karnataka Express, holding tightly onto each other.

Tales of horror and providential escape emerged a day after 12 passengers were killed on Wednesday evening when they were said to have jumped off the Pushpak Express in panic because of a fire alarm and got run over by the oncoming Karnataka Express.

Railway officials said on Thursday that the passengers of the Pushpak Express who got off had sufficient time to move to a safer location as the Karnataka Express arrived 20 minutes later.

At least seven of the 12 persons killed in the Jalgaon train accident hailed from Nepal, the authorities said on Thursday. A minor boy and two women were among the four Nepalese victims, they added. The four Nepalese victims have been identified as Kamala Navin Bhandari, 43, who lived at Colaba in Mumbai; Javakala Bhate, 60, who resided at Bhiwandi in Thane; Lachchiram, in his 50s; and Imtiyaz Ali, 11.

An injured passenger being treated at a hospital in Jalgaon district on Thursday PTI

Ramrang, who lives in Jalgaon, said Lachchiram hailed from Narainapur in Nepal’s Banke district. “Some portions of his hands and legs are missing,” Ramrang said. He said his uncle was travelling on the Pushpak Express to Thane from Nepal via Lucknow with five other persons, who are all day wagers and survived the tragedy.

Ramrang said they identified his uncle from his face and clothes, but the sight of the mutilated remains was so scary that their “minds went blank for a moment”. Lachchiram’s body has not yet been handed over to them, Ramrang said, adding they want to take his uncle’s mortal remains to his native place in Nepal.

Recounting the horror, Shaukat said: “There was a fire alarm on the train. We saw smoke inside the bogie. When the train slowed, we hastily stepped down and it appeared everyone else had done so.”

“Within a couple of minutes, we saw the Karnataka Express hurtling towards us on the adjacent tracks. Everyone started running helter-skelter, but there was no scope of escape,” he said.

“We found a small space between the two trains and lay down, tightly holding on to each other. It’s a miracle we survived,” Shaukat said.

Ten of those injured are undergoing treatment — nine at the Pachora civil hospital and one at a medical facility in Jalgaon city. The others, who suffered minor injuries, have been discharged, an official said earlier in the day.

A team from the Central Railway on Wednesday night visited the hospitals and distributed a total ex gratia of Rs 2.70 lakh among nine of the injured passengers, an official said.

The accident took place between Maheji and Pardhade stations near Pachora town in north Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district when the Pushpak Express halted after someone pulled the chain around 4.45pm on Wednesday fearing a fire inside a bogie, Central Railway officials said. Dilip Kumar, executive director of information and publicity in the Railway Board, however, denied that any spark or fire inside the coach caused passengers to pull the alarm.

“Of the 12, we have identified eight bodies so far, including two from their Aadhaar cards,” special inspector-general of police Dattatraya Karale said.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said the Jalgaon train accident was the result of a “sheer rumour” spread by a tea seller about a fire inside the Pushpak Express.

Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar said: “A tea seller from the pantry shouted about a fire having broken out in a coach.” Two passengers from Shravasti in Uttar Pradesh heard it and conveyed the “false alarm” to others, leading to confusion and panic in their general coach and the adjoining one, he said.

A passenger pulled the chain. “When the train halted, people started jumping out and got run over by the Karnataka Express on the adjacent tracks,” he said.

The Pushpak Express reached the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, its final destination in Mumbai, around 1.20am on Thursday, a railway spokesperson said.