For those on board the Kanchanjunga Express, the ‘shock of a lifetime’ | News from India

Despite the ordeal, their compartment was relatively lucky. Those at the back of the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express faced a much worse situation when a goods train rammed into it near New Jalpaiguri station in West Bengal. Several compartments were damaged, nine people including the driver of the freight train locomotive died and 25 were injured.

“It was the shock of my life,” Roy said.

In another berth compartment, Suman Chowdhury of Agartala saw his wife fall from the upper side berth and sustain minor injuries. Several minutes after the commotion, Chowdhury, 43, and several others then went downstairs to figure out what had happened.

“We went through about 7-8 compartments after ours. We found that a few compartments towards the end were damaged and had derailed. One of them stood at an angle, one part sticking out from the other. There were people everywhere screaming for help. Soon, a large group of local villagers rushed to the spot and started rescuing people. They did this until railway personnel arrived and continued the rescue operation almost two hours later,” he said.

During those two hours, Chowdhury said, the wait was overwhelming. “Many passengers continued to call or try to contact the railway authorities, but for a while no help was received. At first they answered calls, but soon they either stopped responding or said they had no information about the incident. It was the local villagers who rescued the passengers from these damaged compartments,” he said.

Roy, who is a havaldar of Tripura police, said he sustained minor injuries. He was treated by doctors and paramedics sent by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) after a new locomotive arrived to transport 15 of the original 23 compartments to Sealdah.

Chowdhury and Roy said they helped rescue the injured passengers.

Local police personnel reached the spot around 9:20-9:30 a.m., Chowdhury said. Railway police then carried out more complex rescue work, opening damaged railway compartments to rescue those trapped, he said.

Chowdhury said many of those sitting near the train doors were seriously injured; many of them were missing limbs, one of them was missing a leg.