The carriages from three separate trains sat piled high in an entangled wreck. Some lay sideways, others had been thrown so high into the air on impact that they had fallen back to earth twisted and upside down.
A line of dozens of bodies covered in white sheets were laid out next to the wreckage waiting for vehicles – ambulances, local cars, even tractors – to take them away to local hospitals. Passengers’ possessions lay scattered around them, shoes and toys and suitcases thrown open.
This was the aftermath of one of the deadliest train crashes in India in almost two decades, when on Friday evening the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata in West Bengal to Chennai in Tamil Nadu, collided with a freight train in the eastern state of Odisha. The freight train in turn derailed some carriages of the Howrah Superfast Express train, which was travelling in the opposite direction.
As of Saturday morning, the death toll stood at 280, with 900 more injured, but the authorities said it was likely to rise as rescue efforts continued with thousands deployed to the scene to help. Rescue dogs and metal cutters were used to try to locate and reach those trapped in the mangled carriages.
Relatives of those on board the trains rushed to the site and began frantically looking through the bodies trying to find for their loved ones. Among them was Rabindra Shau, 53, who was looking for his son Govinda, who had boarded the Coromandel Express in Shalimar.
“Please help me find my son. At least help me with his dead body,” he shouted.
Sheikh Zakir Hussain, 35, from West Bengal, said he was trying to get news of his older brother Abdul Sheikh, his son Mehraj Sheikh, 22, and three of his neighbours, who had all boarded a train near Shalimar and were heading to Chennai for work.
“Since the time I heard the news of the accident, I called my brother and nephew but their phones were switched off,” he said. “I came early in the morning and have been since going from one hospital to another but there is no trace of them.
“I even went to the spot and saw heaps of bodies lying there. I saw the faces of more than 100 dead people but could not find my brother, nephew or my neighbours.”
Toton Sekh also ran to the site on Saturday morning to look for his nephew Abu Taher Shekh, 24, from Basanti in West Bengal, who had been travelling back on the train from Chennai. He said the scene of the crash resembled a hellscape with “piles of dead bodies kept in a school”.
He said officials had not been able to locate his nephew and he couldn’t find him in any hospitals. “The officials said that some bodies were still lying trapped inside the damaged train coaches and it would take some time to extricate them all,” he said.
“I am still searching for him. We are praying that he is somehow found alive somewhere.”
About 10 of the 23 coaches that made up the Coromandel Express were severely damaged, and two carriages of the Howrah Superfast Express train had overturned. Those who had been on board the colliding trains described the horror.
One survivor said he had been asleep but was awoken as his carriage derailed. “Some 10 to 15 people fell over me,” he told an Indian news channel. “I injured my hand and neck. When I got out of the train, I saw limbs scattered all around, a leg here, a hand there. Someone’s face was disfigured.”
Gobinda Mondal, a labourer from Chennai, was sitting in the first coach of the Coromandel Express that derailed. “There was a sudden crash and the coach I was in got derailed at a very high speed. It skidded for some distance,” he said, describing how he had pushed his way through a broken carriage window to escape. “I could see some injured people inside the coach asking for help. One of them was complaining of pain in the chest.”
Subhankar Ruidas, a passenger on the Howrah express, said his carriage had not been damaged in the incident but that he had felt a “a tremor-like feeling when our train hit the Coromandel Express”.
Local people who heard the screech of brakes and the terrible sound of the trains colliding rushed to the scene and worked to pull passengers out from the wreckage. Ashok Samal, a shopkeeper, told the Hindustan Times he heard the crash and ran immediately to the tracks.
“There were loud shrieks and blood all over,” he said. “Several persons in the trapped bogies were wailing to help them, I saw several bodies trapped under the upturned coaches.”
Nearby hospitals were overrun with the dead and injured. A doctor at SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttak said: “Some have lost their limbs and many have serious injuries across their bodies,. Around 20 injured people who were brought to me passed away while we were trying to treat them.
“The hospital is flooded with the injured. They are lying on the floor. We are rushing from one patient to another. I just managed to attend to the wounds of a small girl child, she is doing well. But we have no idea about her parents.”
Shaikh Azizur Rahman contributed reporting from Kolkata
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