Four passengers, including a child, died on Sunday when they jumped from the Khajuraho-Udaipur Intercity Express following a rumour of a fire on board and were crushed by another train in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, The Indian Express reported.
The incident occurred around 4.15 pm near Hetampur railway station in the Jhansi division after a passenger in a general coach pulled the alarm chain of the train over a rumoured fire.
Railway officials said that due to panic surrounding reports of the alleged fire, some passengers got off the halted train and moved onto the adjacent railway track, PTI reported.
The Patalkot Express was passing on the adjacent track at the time, and the passengers who had got off failed to notice the approaching train and were run over, railway officials said.
“Due to the curve, those on the track may not have seen the train,” Jhansi Divisional Railway Manager Anirudh Kumar told The Indian Express. “Despite the driver’s attempt to apply emergency brakes, the train, moving at high speed, ran over them.”
According to railway officials and eyewitness accounts, no fire was subsequently detected on the Khajuraho-Udaipur Intercity train, the newspaper reported.
Those who died have been identified as Virma Devi (60), a resident of Rajasthan’s Bikaner district, Shakuntala Devi (60), Afreen (35) and her four-year-old son Asad Khan – all residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district, The Hindu reported.
The authorities have launched a detailed investigation into how the rumour started and the circumstances that led passengers to leave the train and step onto the railway tracks.
Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.
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