Trapped under Indore-Patna Express, student shouted home phone number
November 21, 2016 20:46
The last thing Uttam Kumar remembers is a huge bang as his carriage was violently crushed. When he came to, he was trapped upside down in the wreckage of the Indore-Patna Express that derailed on Sunday, killing more than 140 people.
Fighting back tears, the 26-year-old business student recalled how he waited over three hours to be cut out of the mangled train carriage, which was crushed under another by the violence of the crash.
When rescuers finally put him in an ambulance, there were only dead bodies for company.
"They cut the part of the carriage where I was stuck and pulled me out. Then I remember being moved to the ambulance, which was parked next to the site. I was the only one alive among all the dead bodies," he said.
An estimated 2,000 people were on board the intercity express train when it came off the tracks around 3 am on Sunday, violently jolting passengers out of their sleep.
So far, 143 bodies have been pulled from the mangled wreckage, a painstaking process involving metal cutters, heavy lifting equipment and sniffer dogs.
Rescue workers say many of the bodies are so badly damaged they are unrecognisable, and expect the toll to rise further as the worst affected carriages are cleared.
Kumar's family managed to track him down quickly thanks to the help of local residents, who heard his screams for help from the wreckage and took down his home telephone number so they could contact his relatives.
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