NELLORE: At least 32 passengers were charred to death and 27 injured when a sleeper bogie of New Delhi-Chennai superfast Tamil Nadu Express (No 12622) caught fire mysteriously in the early hours of Monday. The reserved S-11 bogie caught fire at 4.22am and the entire bogie was gutted in 20 minutes leaving no chance for the sleeping passengers to escape.
While some of the passengers were burnt beyond recognition, some were reduced to ashes. This is second major train accident in Andhra Pradesh in a span of two months as 25 passengers were killed on May 22 when Bellary-Bengaluru Hampi Express collided with a stationary goods train at Penukonda station in Anantapur district.
More than 15 bodies were found near the exit gate giving an indication that all of them were burnt alive while trying the escape. The victims were choked to death as the fire and smoke engulfed them even before they woke up from the deep sleep. The incident took place soon after the express train passed through Nellore station at 4.15 am. The gateman near Vedayapalem railway level crossing spotted the smoke and flames in the bogie and alerted the authorities. The driver brought the train to a sudden halt after some panicked passengers pulled the chain. The train was running at a speed of about 70 kmph at the time.
The fire engulfed the train in no time due to the winds sweeping in the area in the early hours. Smoke and fire spread from one end of the bogie to the front portion where more number of passengers were sleeping near the exit point. The passengers occupying the berth numbers 25-70 were the worst hit. While about 25 from the rear end ran out towards the northern side and escaped with injuries, those who tried to reach the southern exit were charred to death. A few others were reduced to ashes on their berths even before they could wake up. "The bogie resembled a mass crematorium where several charred bodies were found in a heap," a rescuer said.
While 72 passengers were travelling in the reserved bogie, eye-witnesses said that at least half a dozen unreserved passengers had also boarded the bogie. Nearly 27 passengers were rescued and admitted to various hospitals in Nellore and 10 others believed to have escaped the fire by jumping from the train. The railway emergency team soon after reaching the spot de linked the other bogies from the ill-fated S-11 bogie and saved the passengers from getting trapped in the fire.
The railway ministry ordered a high-level probe into the incident. Additional DG, Government Railway Police, VSK Kaumudi said that special investigation teams were being rushed to the spot to ascertain the cause of the accident. Although speculation is rife that the accident could be an act of sabotage, district collector B Sridhar and SP Ramana Kumar, who were first to reach the mishap site, refuted the charge. They made it clear that short-circuit in the running train caused the fire. "There is no chance of a sabotage or plot by anti-social elements behind the mishap," the SP told TOI. The railway authorities, however, said the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained as they claimed that the gateman heard a loud noise before the fire engulfed the bogie. Divisional railway manager Anurag said that after a thorough inspection of the train by the forensic experts, the exact cause of the mishap could be ascertained.
The injured passengers were rushed to various hospitals including Jaibharathi super speciality hospital, People's Polyclinic, Bollineni Hospital and the government general hospital. According to initial information provided by the railway authorities, 28 passengers took the train at Vijayawada station. At least 17 passengers were travelling from Delhi, 11 from Bhopal, 7 from Warangal, 6 from Jhansi, 3 from Agra and one from Nagpur.
Railway minister Mukul Roy announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased in the accident, while chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy asked the district administration to provide all possible help to the injured passengers. Following instructions from the state government, the authorities made arrangements for completion of postmortem at the railway station.
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