A 56-year-old man who fractured both his legs after jumping out of the air-conditioned Metro train that caught fire on Thursday evening said he would not have taken the risk had there been timely announcements or help arrived earlier.

“I don’t remember how long I was trapped inside the coach. At least 20 minutes had passed by the time windowpanes were broken and people started jumping out,” Ashok Dhar said at SSKM Hospital.

Dhar, who had jumped out through a window, was not alone in making the allegations. Many of the trapped passengers said the Metro authorities did not make any announcement and were late in responding to the crisis.

“Some of us used fire extinguishers to break the glass. I nearly fainted because of breathlessness. There was no announcement to inform the passengers what had happened,” said Pubali Biswas, 26, who was in the compartment whose undercarriage caught fire.

Chhandak Chatterjee, a resident of Jadavpur who was in the third compartment, made the same allegation.

“Dense smoke started entering the coach five minutes after the train had stopped. We did not know what to do. It was dark and there was no announcement. The kids in the coach were crying. It was difficult to breathe,” he said.

The smoke was becoming thicker by the minute, prompting people to reach under the seats for fire extinguishers, with which they wanted to smash the windowpanes.

“We tried in vain to open the gates. People then pulled out the fire extinguishers and struck the windowpanes with them,” Chatterjee said.

Metro officials said the control room was alerted as soon as the flames were first spotted but the evacuation could not start without snapping power supply to the third rail.

“The train was in the tunnel. We could not have started the evacuation without effecting a power block first. The block was taken around 5.19pm,” Metro spokesperson Indrani Banerjee said. “The incident took place around 5pm. The evacuation started around 5.22pm and the last person got down at 5.50pm.”

Asked about the allegations that there was no announcement, she said: “Recordings of announcements were made from the guard’s cabin”.

Several people who had tried calling the Metro helpline number displayed on the inside walls of the compartments said the phone either kept ringing or was engaged. An official who was monitoring the rescue from the control room said the sheer number of calls made simultaneously led to the problem.

“We still catered to more than 50 calls in an hour,” he said.

Multiple passengers said the driver had tried to take the train towards the next station before the flames were doused.

A senior Metro official said the train’s momentum took it forward after the emergency brakes had been applied. The power supply from the sub-stations that propel the train tripped after the incident. “The driver could not have started the train again even if he had wanted to,” he said.

Firefighters were the first to rescue the passengers. Chatterjee said he saw firemen entering the train 20 minutes after the train had stopped. “They asked us to remain calm and told us to walk in a single file towards the front of the train. We got out through the driver’s cabin,” he said.