Saw train mow down people, tragedy unfolded in seconds

Pooja Singh, 19, shudders as she recalls the harrowing incident involving two long-distance trains just hours ago. She was on board a Lucknow-Mumbai express train on Wednesday evening, when some panic-gripped passengers pulled an emergency chain, following rumours of a fire on the train, with some jumping off the train only to be run over by another train on parallel tracks.

- HT Correspondents

LUCKNOW/MUMBAI: Pooja Singh, 19, shudders as she recalls the harrowing incident involving two long-distance trains just hours ago. She was on board a Lucknow-Mumbai express train on Wednesday evening, when some panic-gripped passengers pulled an emergency chain, following rumours of a fire on the train, with some jumping off the train only to be run over by another train on parallel tracks.

"I was travelling with my mother in the Pushpak Express. We were sleeping when people began screaming. Someone said that the train had caught fire. My mother took me near a door and told me to jump, but I was scared and couldn't. My heart sank as I saw passengers standing on the track getting hit by another train," recalled the 19-year-old from Lucknow, who was on her way to Pune, where she studies.

"All this happened so quickly that I could not understand anything," she added.