Gory sight to see people aflame, say passengers

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It was an unbearable and gory sight to see fellow passengers burning and screaming for help as they stood helpless due to the searing heat, said shocked passengers of the mishap-hit Hampi Express.

Overcome by the shock, the passengers who arrived at the Bangalore railway station here, said the cries of burning passengers still rang in their ears. 30-year-old Ratnamma, who along 20 others boarded the train at Gooty (Andhra Pradesh), said she was rudely woken out of her sleep around 3.15 am when the train stopped with a loud thud. Her husband fell from the upper berth on some children sleeping on the floor.

"I thought it was an earthquake. It is only when I saw other passengers jostling to get out, throwing their luggage outside and women wailing did I realise something was wrong. When we got down, it was a blood curdling sight," she said.

One of the bogies was in flames, charred bodies were all around and bleeding and injured passengers including small children, were crying for help.

"It is a sight I cannot forget", she said, tears streaming down her face.

"It was simply unbearable and a gory sight to watch our fellow passengers burning in front us, while we just stood helpless" she said.

"We desperately wanted to help but it was searingly hot and smoke was coming out of the bogie, almost choking us. We could not muster up the courage to save our brothers and sisters", she said.

24 people were killed when the Hampi Express rammed into a stationary goods train at Penukonda station in the wee hours on Tuesday.

Over 70 injured people were shifted to various hospitals as the rescue work continued at the accident site near Penukonda railway station, about 400 km from here.

As many as 16 bodies, most of them charred beyond recognition, were found in first coach, which caught fire due to electrical short-circuiting after the collision. Seven bodies were recovered from other damaged coaches, while two persons died from their injuries in a local hospital, police said.

The train driver and his co-driver were among those killed in the accident that took place around 3.15 a.m. The toll may go up as some of the injured are stated to be in a very critical condition. Some passengers were still trapped inside the damaged bogies, and the rescue workers were using gas cutters to extricate them.

The train, which left Hubli at 6 pm on Monday, was to reach Bengaluru at 6 am. It originates in Karnataka and passes through parts of Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh before re-entering Karnataka.

A signalling error appears to have led to the crash, a railway official said.