At least 12 passengers were killed on Wednesday evening when they jumped off their train in panic because of a “fire incident” and got run over by another train on adjacent tracks, police said.
Twelve bodies were sent to the nearby civil hospital while “six to seven” others were injured in the accident in the northern Maharashtra district of Jalgaon, special inspector-general of police Dattatraya Karale told PTI.
Central Railway officials did not confirm the death toll.
The accident took place between the Maheji and Pardhade stations near Pachora, more than 400km from Mumbai.
Some passengers of the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express halted the train by pulling the chain and jumped off, to be run over by the oncoming Bengaluru-Delhi Karnataka Express, Central Railway chief spokesperson Swapnil Nila said.
These passengers had panicked when sparks flew out of the Pushpak Express’s wheels after brakes were applied ahead of Pachora station, fellow passengers said.
Some passengers jumped on the tracks from one side — and got run over — while others got off from another side, close to a culvert wall, they added.
Railway officials said a track curvature appeared to have affected the visibility and braking distance of the Karnataka Express.
A passenger told a Marathi news channel that he saw at least two passengers coming under the wheels of the Karnataka Express.
Visuals from the spot showed severed body parts lying along a stretch of the tracks.
Residents of nearby villages rushed to offer help. Salman Pathan, who lives in Pachora, said he saw mutilated bodies on the tracks.
“We saw the headless body of a man. A woman was inconsolable after her husband lost his life in the accident, his body badly mangled,” he said.
A senior railway official told PTI: “Our preliminary information is that there were sparks and smoke inside one of the general coaches of the Pushpak Express because of either a hot axle or brake-binding (jamming), and some passengers panicked.”
IG Karale told PTI that a “fire incident” caused the panic and the accident.
